Shaping Sexual Behaviors & Sexual Scripts

Open Access: No.

Abstract

Pornography is the subject of many papers published in Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy. Few factors have been more consistently assumed to impact behavior around and perceptions of pornography than religion. And yet, the nature of the relationship between religiosity and pornography use remains undertheorized and insufficiently researched. Using recently published scholarship and the presentation of novel data as a motivational springboard, this letter calls for pornography researchers to devote additional, nuanced attention to the important question of how religiosity impacts pornography use.

Relevance

“We presented three possible hypotheses: the Constancy Effect Hypothesis (i.e., there is a stable negative correlation between higher moral disapproval and lower consumption across more and less socially acceptable depictions), the Prosocial Ceiling Effect Hypothesis (i.e., the negative correlation between higher moral disapproval and lower consumption is smallest for socially acceptable content and largest for antisocial content), and the Antisocial Floor Effect Hypothesis (i.e., the negative correlation between higher moral disapproval and lower consumption will be largest for prosocial content and smallest for antisocial content).”

We tested these competing hypotheses in a sample of collegiate men in the United States. “Results were most consistent with the Antisocial Floor Effect Hypothesis. The mean differences between moral puritans’ (i.e., those high in moral disapproval) and moral libertarians’ (i.e., those low in moral disapproval) pornography use was largest for romantic pornography and decreased in magnitude for each subsequently less prosocial content category. Additionally, the negative correlation between higher moral disapproval and lower consumption frequency was largest for romantic content and decreased in magnitude for each subsequently more antisocial content type.”

The authors also replicated the findings with a study of 839 adults. The “results are in alignment with the Antisocial Floor Effect Hypothesis, which predicts that the negative correlation between stronger moral disapproval of pornography and lower pornography consumption will be largest for more socially acceptable content and smaller for more antisocial content.”

Citation

Wright, P. J., Sun, C. F., Johnson, J. A., Bridges, A. J., Ezzell, M. B., & Aadahl, S. E. (2026). Religiosity and Pornography Use: A Call for (Nuanced) Attention. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2026.2680170