Porn isn’t always degrading to women, according to new research.
The study suggests that watching porn is associated with treating women with greater tolerance – but only if the men are religious.
The findings provide new insights into how pornography may affect people on a societal level.
While you might think that pornography would encourage female objectification, a new study suggests that the reverse may actually be too. The study suggests that watching porn is associated with treating women with greater tolerance – especially if the men are religious (stock image)
Researchers from Mount Royal University and the University of Western Ontario looked at the effect of watching porn on how men see women.
In the study, the researchers surveyed 11,658 men and 13,988 women – most of who were white, married and Christian, with an average age of 44.
Participants answered questions about their church attendance, how often they had watched porn in the last year, and their attitudes towards women.
Questions included ‘Should women take care of their homes and leave running the country up to men?’, ‘Would you vote for a woman to be president?’ and ‘Are men better suited emotionally to politics?’
The results showed that people who watched more porn had more accepting attitudes towards women.
The researchers found that those who attended church at least once a month were more likely to believe that women shouldn’t have abortion rights, shouldn’t work outside the home and shouldn’t hold political office.
But interestingly, men who went to church once a month and used porn didn’t have these same views.
While the effects were small and say little about the attitudes of individuals, the researchers believe the findings give insight into how porn affects us as a group.
The researchers found that those who attended church at least once a month were more likely to believe that women shouldn’t have abortion rights, shouldn’t work outside the home and shouldn’t hold political office (stock image)
Speaking to Newsweek, Dr Kyler R. Rasmussen, co-author of the study, said: ‘On a societal level [the results] could be potentially interesting, especially since it tipped religious people across the threshold toward favouring abortion, on average.’
Dr Rasmussen suggests that the internal conflict that religious men experience while watching porn may explain the link between viewers who are religious and increased tolerance towards women.
He said: ‘Religious men are motivated to reduce that discomfort.
‘One way they can do so is by changing their attitudes toward pornography – if porn isn’t wrong, then they no longer have to feel uncomfortable.’
The researchers highlight that the findings don’t mean that religious men who watch porn are more tolerant towards women than non-religious men with the same habits.
Non-religious men are unlikely to have traditional gender beliefs to begin with, so porn would have little effect on their views towards women, according to the researchers.
Dr Rasmussen added: ‘Our results actually limit that association to just religious people – if you look closely, you’ll notice that less-religious people who watch porn are actually slightly less egalitarian.’