Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Does porn actually damage the brain? Might sound far-fetched, but there is some very interesting research on this topic that might convince you that it does. This week, I plan to post each day on a different topic related to my new book, Sex & God at Yale. Chapter 2, entitled "The Great Porn Debate," details a rip-roaring Oxford-style porn debate starring porn performer Ron Jeremy, which was held in New Haven during my junior year.
Just this morning, a current Yale student sent me this fascinating TEDx video, featuring a talk by physiologist Gary Wilson, host of www.yourbrainonporn.com. According to the video description, Wilson's research "arose in response to a growing demand for solid scientific information by heavy Internet erotica users experiencing perplexing, unexpected effects: escalation to more extreme material, concentration difficulties, sexual performance problems, radical changes in sexual tastes, social anxiety, irritability, inability to stop, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms."
The video lasts about 15 min, but you can catch the main drift by watching only the first 5. Do so and I promise you'll learn something:
Fascinating stuff, huh? Especially considering how extreme and how universal porn has become among youth in the internet age. It has shaped an entire generation already.
So what do you think? Is porn harmless, or is it poison for the brain?
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Comments:
Jul '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
If we defended the republic with the same vigor and commitment that men apply in defending pornography, the current stupidity could never have come to pass. Of course, clearly that 2M+ of new disableds collecting Social Security are suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome from activities related to the Internet.
Jun '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
dittoheadadt
So if the depraved, inhuman stuff is disgusting to most males (as I claim, without evidence to back me up, to be sure), how would the "quality or essence" of that crap be addictive to most males?
There is a complex, weird relationship in the mind between depravity and sexual arousal. I can still dimly recall as a pre-teen first learning about the birds and the bees when any kind of sex, even kissing a girl for that matter, seemed kind of icky and disgusting. They have cooties!
Words like "dirty" and "nasty" are often associated with sex, and not solely by moralists. Some people would insist that if sex isn't at least a bit dirty, you're not doing it right. Then there's the forbidden-fruit effect: some things are arousing or titillating precisely because they are forbidden or off-limits.
So yes, I think most men will initially be disgusted by these sorts of depraved images; but that very disgust, and the knowledge that these acts are wrong and socially unacceptable, can also become a source of arousal and stimulation.
We are strange creatures, aren't we?
Jul '11
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
dittoheadadt
CandE
dittoheadadt: (cont.)
That communication caricature always presents the husband as the cad or the oaf.
So, husbands are responsible for the lack of marital communications. And husbands are responsible for the lack of marital intimacy and sex.
Say, are there any marital problems for which wivesmight bear some responsibility? I even recall an earlier Rico thread asserting that it's the mothers who do all the worrying and the fathers who do all the fun stuff...
This is all straw man. No one is saying that wives don't bear responsibility for lack of marital intimacy or communication. No one is endorsing the stereotype of an oafish husband. No one is suggesting that porn is at the root of all failed marriages. What we are saying is that when porn is present, people (users, wives, families, children) suffer for it.
You say my comments are a straw man, and then you say categorically and without exception that "when porn is present, people...suffer for it."
Yours is an absolutist statement. Mine was an exaggeration to make a point. But you're the one making the absolute statement earnestly. · 2 hours ago
Straw man =/= categorical statements or hyperbole.
-E
Apr '11
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
How many comments does the software allow?
Jul '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Since the software is highly customized, I only know of one certain way to categorically and with full assurance determine the answer to that question.
Jul '11
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
You guys still beating this thread? You have got to back off. You are going to give Chris Deleon a stroke as he tries to keep up with everybody's "red herrings" and "straw men".
Apr '11
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
I want to see more comments just to find out where the software breaks down ala Y2K.
Oct '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Ok, I've watched the video, and my conclusion is that nothing can be gleaned, surmised, or concluded about porn from that clip. Here's why (and no, this is NOT a defense of porn):
1. He doesn't define "heavy" in "heavy internet erotica users"
2. He doesn't define "internet erotica" in "heavy internet erotica users"
3. At the 9:56 mark he refers to "heavy users" who are voluntarily giving up internet porn, without defining "heavy" or describing the kind of porn those "heavy" users gave up
4. At the 4 minute mark he refers to 20 (just twenty! what a great sample from which to extrapolate!) users who were asked whether they thought their internet porn use was affecting them or their attitudes towards women, and who replied "nah, not really," and then he said that was like asking fish their opinion about water. But he never bothered to ask the wives/girlfriends of those 20 (just twenty! what a great sample from which to extrapolate!) that same question to find out if maybe, just maybe, those guys were correct in their self-assessment. He simply dismissed their self-assessments as self-evidently delusional.
(cont.)
Oct '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
(cont.)
5. At the 3:49 mark he laments the lack of a control group of nonusers and likens the dilemma to what it would be like if boys started smoking at age 10. "We would think that lung cancer is normal for all guys."
Um, no we wouldn't. Not "all guys" would develop lung cancer. Some would, many wouldn't. And not "all guys" would continue to smoke just because they started at age 10 and deprived us of a control group who didn't. Some would actually quit smoking. His premise is a false one, but it's essential to the point he wishes to make.
6. He asserts that "real" sex includes 7 things on a list (I assume he didn't intend it to be all-inclusive). From what I have read, seen, heard, and experienced "real" sex (as he intends that term) also includes role playing, fantasy, props & toys, and other enhancements. These can be learned about from of certain kinds of porn (e.g. NOT the "goat sex" porn), without leading to all the dire things he and commenters here have warned about.
(cont.)
Oct '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
(cont.)
7. At 3:25 he states "researchers don't know much about the effects of internet porn" and then he goes on to explain why that is so. But why that is so is irrelevant to the question, if "researchers don't know much about the effects of internet porn," then why, pray tell, are you holding a seminar to tell us about the effects of internet porn?
8. At 4:40 he tells us that the symptoms of "arousal addiction" can be mistaken for ADHD, OCD, depression, social- and performance-anxiety. But if that's true, then the converse is true as well. Those can be symptoms of other things, and be mistaken for "arousal addiction" symptoms. Because, as he told us at 3:25, researchers don't know much about the effects of internet porn.
9. At 5:46 he cites one Dutch study from 6 years ago as evidence that, of all internet activities, porn is the one most likely to lead to internet addiction. Since 2006 there's no other studies to cite? Just that one?
10. At 6:15 he refers to "extreme versions of natural rewards" but never defines that term.
(cont.)
Oct '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
(cont.)
11. He talks about drug addiction, porn addiction, food addiction, video game addiction - so is it porn that's poison for the brain, or is it anything that can be overaccessed and overused that releases dopamine that is poison for the brain?
12. He only shares a couple of male examples, and their symptoms are extreme. A guy in his late 20s had been in therapy for 8 years, had dropped out of 2 colleges, fired twice, had been on many drugs I won't even try to spell, and self-described "hard core" porn user. I daresay he's not representative of most men who've accessed internet porn. He's the extreme. What other examples were provided, or statistics cited? None. Oh, and neither "hard core" nor "porn" was ever defined.
Bottom line - without knowing what kind of porn he's talking about (not all porn is the same) and without knowing the kind of use he's talking about (what is "heavy?" and is he arguing only about "heavy" use?), I don't see how any conclusions can be reached from the original clip and the text of the post that started this thread.
Dec '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
But you don't understand man.
We can't have a rational discussion here, literally tens of people are being effected!!!
WE HAVE TO DOOO SOMETHING!!!1!!
Mar '11
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
To jump in 300 posts in and completely ignore the foregoing conversation, while the video is interesting and the brain science intriguing, I suppose I am just not terribly surprised.
Neither am I surprised to learn that those who read broadly and often tend to have a better vocabulary, or that those who listen to classical music regularly have a longer attention span.
What one devotes one's time and energy to has an impact. The presence or absence of various human pursuits in ones life has an impact. The things we expose ourselves to affect us, and arts of all kinds shape us. Culture matters.
It is continually surprising the amount of energy that gets misdirected into justifying the opposite conclusion.
Mar '11
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
And now to address something that did take place in the foregoing conversation, I completely agree with Mollie's point re: libertarian vs. libertine.
Just because I don't want Tipper Gore and the Parent's Music Research Center, or for that matter Focus on the Family or any such group, using the police power or setting up the National Bureau of Nannystatism doesn't mean that I can't call a spade a spade and condemn something that is debasing.
Jul '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Crow's Nest: And now to address something that did take place in the foregoing conversation, I completely agree with Mollie's point re: libertarian vs. libertine.
Just because I don't want Tipper Gore and the Parent's Music Research Center, or for that matter Focus on the Family or any such group, using the police power or setting up the National Bureau of Nannystatism doesn't mean that I can't call a spade a spade and condemn something that is debasing. · 3 hours ago
Yes, people forget that European settlers came here in a great many cases so they could be moral people and found moral polities, rather than be the oppressed tools of immoral governments.
Happy Pearl Harbor Day!
May '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
CoolHand
But you don't understand man.
We can't have a rational discussion here, literally tens of people are being effected!!!
WE HAVE TO DOOOSOMETHING!!!1!!
Resorting to mocking? It really isn't funny, and you just show yourself up as unserious and unable to properly engage the topic.
Edited on September 7, 2012 at 4:59pmMay '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
I'm sorry you can't draw any conclusions from it. Your summary was pretty dismissive; it didn't seem like you came at it with an open mind.
There is plenty of other material that's been referenced in this thread to back up what we and the OP are saying.
Recent research has shown Internet porn is more addictive than many of the substances most people worry about. It has not been studied much until recently; however, I'm convinced that further research will eventually leave the porn defenders in the dust, like the defenders of smoking who insisted for years that it didn't really do any harm.
I'm also still waiting for anything significant from the porn "defenders" about the abuses of women in the porn industry, and the moral dimension of consuming a "product" that causes this.
Bottom line, porn attacks womanhood, reducing women to pieces of sexual meat, and it also undermines true manhood. It undermines men's self-control, honor, and ability to relate to women properly.
Oct '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Yes it does, if you don't define "spade." That's the problem with the video - he paints with a broad brush, never defining the terms he uses, and then drawing conclusions, and also playing fast and loose with his "evidence." His "science" is no better and no more scientific than the "science" of AGW.
Also, you certainly can condemn "something that is debasing." Probably no one on this thread would disagree with you. But that's NOT the thesis or the premise behind this thread.
Whether porn is brain poison IS the premise, not whether porn is debasing, or anything else. And if the best 16-minute case that can be made for porn being brain poison is the attached video, then it's no case at all. Just lazy conjecture.
Oct '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Chris Deleon
I'm sorry you can't draw any conclusions from it. Your summary was pretty dismissive; it didn't seem like you came at it with an open mind.
I'm also still waiting for anything significant from the porn "defenders" about the abuses of women in the porn industry, and the moral dimension of consuming a "product" that causes this.
Bottom line, porn attacks womanhood, reducing women to pieces of sexual meat, and it also undermines true manhood. It undermines men's self-control, honor, and ability to relate to women properly. · 1 minute ago
Chris, I have no reason to doubt any of that, and I'm not defending porn or dismissing the abuse of women or the moral dimension.
But the original thesis wasn't any of that; it was whether heavy (undefined) porn (undefined) use is poison for the brain. And the video, which I did view (4 times, btw) with an open mind, does not make a compelling case in the affirmative. That's my point.
May '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Again, you can mock, but when people try to change the subject or introduce things irrelevant to the topic, it is a red herring. And when people create a false representation of someone else's position, and then proceed to knock it down, that is a straw man. Both are weak debate techniques.
By the way, I'm fine, and in no risk of suffering a stroke unless I go outside and overwork in the hot sun for several hours.