Effects of Regular Consumption of Pornography On the Everyday Treatment of Women
Date
2015-05
Authors
Hale, Victoria Lee
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Abstract
Pornography is a growing part of American culture. Because people develop more sexual schemas, or perspectives, when they are regularly exposed to sexual content, it is likely that their view of women will be affected by said schema. This could result in men viewing all women through a sexual lens, and women viewing other attractive women as sexual competitors. We conducted a study that gauged how the consumption of pornography affects the everyday treatment of women from both men and women. Sixty participants were asked to complete a questionnaire, which included questions about pornography habits, by a female research assistant who was either dressed attractively or not attractively. The interaction was observed by a researcher who recorded the amount of interest exhibited by participants toward the research assistant. We hypothesized that males who consumed pornography regularly would exhibit flirtatious behaviors towards the research assistant, regardless of the way she was presented, while males who do not watch pornography would display more interested behaviors only in the attractive condition. This hypothesis was proven in part and disproven in part. We also hypothesized that females who consume pornography would exhibit more competitive behaviors towards the assistant than females who do not consume pornography. This was expected to be particularly true when the research assistant is dressed attractively. Lack of female participants who admitted to watching pornography left this part of the study inconclusive.
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Keywords
pornography, behavior, women, sexuality, attractiveness, schemas, media, Honors College
Citation
Hale, V. L. (2015). Effects of regular consumption of pornography on the everyday treatment of women (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.