Violence
Association Between Pornography Use, Sexism, and Sexual Violence Myth Acceptance in Chinese Men: The Moderating Effect of Perceived Realism.
Open Access: No.
Abstract
Pornography is spreading more and more widely due to websites, applications, and social media. It has attracted the attention of a large number of researchers who are sometimes divided on the impact of pornography. However, the relationship between pornography and sexual violence myths has received little scholarly attention in China. Based on the 3AM model and previous research, the study examined hostile sexism (HS) as a mediator and perceived realism as a moderator in the links between pornography use frequency and sexual violence myths in a sample of Chinese men (N = 376). The results showed that although pornography use and sexual violence myths did not directly correlate with one another, there was an indirect correlation through HS. Further, perceived realism moderated the relationship between pornography use frequency and HS. When participants’ perceived realism was high (i.e. +1 SD), the indirect effect of HS was strong; when participants’ perceived realism was low (i.e. −1 SD), the indirect effect of HS was not significant. Taken together, the findings reveal the cross-cultural consistency of the 3AM theory in China, and the findings provide new insight into the potential impact of pornography on sexism. At the same time, the results suggest an increase in appropriate education and interventions to reduce the incidence of sexual violence.
Relevance
Pornography use was “positively correlated” with hostile sexism and “moderately positively correlated with rape myth and sexual harassment myth” (e.g., that women deserve or invited to be raped and harassed). This was especially true for users who see pornography as realistic. “These findings suggest that people should be wary of the sexism and tolerance of sexual violence that are influenced by pornography viewing. At the same time, the current study inspires subsequent researchers to design intervention grams from the perspective of reducing perceived realism.”
Citation
Zhang, X., Fu, T., Yang, J., Li, R., Liu, X., & Zheng, L. (2024). Association Between Pornography Use, Sexism, and Sexual Violence Myth Acceptance in Chinese Men: The Moderating Effect of Perceived Realism. Health Communication, 40(3), 372–381. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2024.2346675
