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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  1. Profile Photo Inactive
    @MelFoil

    If ever there was a thread to make me love the LDS Church, this is probably it. “CTR”

    Image49a.jpg

    • #91
  2. Profile Photo Inactive
    @CandE
    Bryan G. Stephens

    Marshall

    Bryan G. Stephens

    Can’t help but notice how outraged are against men’s porn, but how there is not a word against women’s porn.

    Do you need a conclusive list of behaviors that are destructive in order to talk about one?  Many people think porn is no big deal; a growing body of evidence suggests that it is very destructive.  Saying “yeah, but other stuff is bad too, why don’t we talk about that?” doesn’t change the evidence.  · 7 minutes ago

    Yes I do. Men’s sexuality is what is being attacked, not women’s. 

    I stopped reading after this sentance.  

    Attacking porn is NOT attacking men’s sexuality.  On the contrary, porn is the true attack on men’s sexuality.  It warps and twists men’s desires into nothing more than lust in search of something to consume itself on.  Manliness is enhanced by bridling passions and learning to use them with a woman to enhance love and create life.  Porn belittles and destroys both.

    -E

    • #92
  3. Profile Photo Inactive
    @Guruforhire

    All things in moderation I guess.

    • #93
  4. Profile Photo Inactive
    @MelFoil
    CandE

    Bryan G. Stephens

    Marshall

    Bryan G. Stephens

    Yes I do. Men’s sexuality is what is being attacked, not women’s. 

    I stopped reading after this sentance.  

    Attacking porn is NOT attacking men’s sexuality.  On the contrary,pornis the true attack on men’s sexuality.  It warps and twists men’s desires into nothing more than lust in search of something to consume itself on.  Manliness is enhanced by bridling passions and learning to use them with a woman to enhance love and create life.  Porn belittles and destroys both.

    -E

    Preach it brother…preach it.

    • #94
  5. Profile Photo Inactive
    @CandE
    Sabrdance: 

    Idle hands and devil’s playgrounds and all.

    So is porn itself more damaging than the fixation? · 11 minutes ago

    Good question.  Addictions of any kind are damaging regardless of the object of addiction.  However, a porn addiction (or fixation) is particularly damaging in ways that other things aren’t.  Nathan mentions several items in his original post that are more a consequence of the porn itself than the fixation on porn.  One that I will add is the ability to relate to and respect women.  

    -E

    • #95
  6. Profile Photo Inactive
    @LucyPevensie
    CandE

    Bryan G. Stephens

    Marshall

    I stopped reading after this sentance.  

    Attacking porn is NOT attacking men’s sexuality.  On the contrary,pornis the true attack on men’s sexuality.  It warps and twists men’s desires into nothing more than lust in search of something to consume itself on.  Manliness is enhanced by bridling passions and learning to use them with a woman to enhance love and create life.  Porn belittles and destroys both.

    -E

    I agree.  And if you look at the kind of comments that people are making in defense of pornography, you can see woven through them all the destruction wrought on the psyche by pornography. None of the comments talk about sex as an expression of love.  All are entirely focused on men’s right to sexual release.  The comments all see sexuality as a unilateral experience of self gratification, not as one of the highest forms of self giving and communication.  They see marriage as a quid pro quo in which women give or withhold sexual fulfillment from their husbands. They are really sad. 

    • #96
  7. Profile Photo Member
    @RobertELee
    Mel Foil

    Robert E. Lee

    SParker: Porn is conventional, trite, and predictable.  Always.

    Untrue.  Seriously.

    You see a lot of this on porn sites, do you? · 18 minutes ago

    You don’t have to be trying to see porn.  I’ve done image searches for military aircraft that have turned up the must unusual results.

    • #97
  8. Profile Photo Inactive
    @RedFeline
    Robert E. Lee

    Red Feline

    What a shock for each when they meet reality! :-) · 7 minutes ago

    Reality is a vastly overrated concept.  Fantasy, fiction, there are places in the world for these things.  Just ask any book seller, film studio, or law maker. · 30 minutes ago

    So true! Shakespeare thought romantic love was a form of temporary madness, witness Bottom and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

    But we digress! A committed marriage is about reality and real sex, not pornography. 

    Pornography, both male and female, is an addiction and research has shown that it affects the mind adversely. The alcoholic is the one who is the last to admit he/she is an addict.

    • #98
  9. Profile Photo Thatcher
    @BryanGStephens

    When we talk about only mens porn we are only talking about men’s sexuality. Men have always liked porn. 

    Anyone want to explain the decrease in divorce in the age of the internet?

    • #99
  10. Profile Photo Inactive
    @CandE
    Lucy Pevensie

    CandE

    Bryan G. Stephens

    Marshall

     

    I stopped reading after this sentance.  

    Attacking porn is NOT attacking men’s sexuality.  On the contrary,pornis the true attack on men’s sexuality.  It warps and twists men’s desires into nothing more than lust in search of something to consume itself on.  Manliness is enhanced by bridling passions and learning to use them with a woman to enhance love and create life.  Porn belittles and destroys both.

    -E

    I agree.  And if you look at the kind of comments that people are making in defense of pornography, you can see woven through them all the destruction wrought on the psyche by pornography. None of the comments talk about sex as an expression of love.  All are entirely focused on men’s right to sexual release.  The comments all see sexuality as a unilateral experience of self gratification, not as one of the highest forms of self giving and communication.  They see marriage as a quid pro quo in which women give or withhold sexual fulfillment from their husbands. They are really sad.  · 7 minutes ago

    Beautifully said.  Thank you.

    -E

    • #100
  11. Profile Photo Thatcher
    @BryanGStephens
    Lucy Pevensie

    CandE

    Bryan G. Stephens

    Marshall

     

    I stopped reading after this sentance.  

    Attacking porn is NOT attacking men’s sexuality.  On the contrary,pornis the true attack on men’s sexuality.  It warps and twists men’s desires into nothing more than lust in search of something to consume itself on.  Manliness is enhanced by bridling passions and learning to use them with a woman to enhance love and create life.  Porn belittles and destroys both.

    -E

    I agree.  And if you look at the kind of comments that people are making in defense of pornography, you can see woven through them all the destruction wrought on the psyche by pornography. None of the comments talk about sex as an expression of love.  All are entirely focused on men’s right to sexual release.  The comments all see sexuality as a unilateral experience of self gratification, not as one of the highest forms of self giving and communication.  They see marriage as a quid pro quo in which women give or withhold sexual fulfillment from their husbands. They are really sad.  · 8 minutes ago

    So by disagreeing with you I have poor character. How like a leftist.

    • #101
  12. Profile Photo Member
    @
    Bryan G. Stephens: we should have seen massive behavior changes in men. We have not.

    Ahem.  We haven’t?

    Bryan G. Stephens: Saying “First, acknowledge that it’s a problem.  You seem not to be able to.” casts me not as someone who disagrees, but someone that is crippled in some way that I cannot just see things are they really are.

    No, that is not meant to cast you as crippled; if you felt that was my intention, I apologize for the bad phrasing.  It was simply intended to point out that you can’t seem to agree that it’s a big problem.  Again, nothing is meant to be taken personally.

    It was mainly to highlight the fact that the first step to addressing this problem is to acknowledge it is a problem.  All I hear from you is that it’s not that big a problem.  I personally know that is not the case.

    And no, porn is not causing men to go out and rape women en masse, or engage in some of the other risky behaviors associated with some of the hard drugs.  But the problems it causes are real, and you should acknowledge them.

    • #102
  13. Profile Photo Inactive
    @CandE
    Bryan G. Stephens: When we talk about only mens porn we are only talking about men’s sexuality. Men have always liked porn. 

    Anyone want to explain the decrease in divorce in the age of the internet? · 6 minutes ago

    I’ll see your decrease in divorce in the age of the internet and raise you a decrease in the marriage rate coupled with a rise in bastardy AND an overall decline in fertility.

    -E

    • #103
  14. Profile Photo Inactive
    @LarryKoler
    Lucy Pevensie

    Larry Koler: Very interesting discussion. Thanks, Nathan. 

    It’s very interesting to notice the women’s position (not only made by the women here, BTW) vs. the men’s position.

    This particular phrase just drove me crazy all night, and I have to come back and comment on it.  There is a position that pornography is harmful, initially made by a male Contributor who posted a video of a male researcher showing evidence for his position. This position is supported by a majority of commenters, both female and male, and opposed (very vociferously, to the level of 23 comments as of now in one case) by a few males.  How does this become the “women’s position”? 

    No, Lucy, I wasn’t talking about the positions pro or anti — it was that the approach to this subject was different for men vs women. Men see this topic as a way to talk about all things sexual because they see porn as a piece in a large puzzle. Women want to see this particular behavior curbed without asking themselves why men have much more trouble with this than women. This has to be answered first. That’s all.

    • #104
  15. Profile Photo Thatcher
    @BryanGStephens

    So here we are, with several people now on the “porn is evil” side, and anyone one that dares to defend it must also be “evil”.

    Clearly, I cannot be a good husband if I consume porn. I cannot be a good father or citizen either because porn changes my brain. Do I have that argument down right?

    Part of Marriage is sex, people. If you think it is OK for a woman to stop having sex with her husband and he should just take it, then you must also think it is OK for a man to stop talking to his wife and she should just take it.

    • #105
  16. Profile Photo Inactive
    @tabularasa
    Bryan G. Stephens: When we talk about only mens porn we are only talking about men’s sexuality. Men have always liked porn. 

    Anyone want to explain the decrease in divorce in the age of the internet? · 4 minutes ago

    Bryan:  Because 13 million American men and women are cohabitating. Twenty years ago, less than three million Americans lived in cohabitational relationships.  If there’s no marriage at the beginning of a relationship, there will be no divorce at its end.  

    Cohabitational relationships are much more fragile than marriages.  The fact that the divorce rate has decreased slightly means that those who do marry are less likely to break up.  Overall, however, long-term relationships between the sexes are worse than ever.

    If you want to read a thoughtful analysis of the impacts of cohabitation, check out the 2008 report of the National Marriage Project, here.

    • #106
  17. Profile Photo Inactive
    @RedFeline
    Lucy Pevensie  … . None of the comments talk about sex as an expression of love.  … as one of the highest forms of self giving and communication.  They see marriage as a quid pro quo in which women give or withhold sexual fulfillment from their husbands. They are really sad.  · 3 minutes ago

    Totally agree, Lucy, it is sad! Let’s be honest again. There is nothing better than a “romp in the hay” with the person who is one’s committed partner in life, through all the ups and downs. It adds a spiritual depth and excitement to the whole experience that mere sex can’t imitate.  

    • #107
  18. Profile Photo Thatcher
    @BryanGStephens
    CandE

    Bryan G. Stephens: When we talk about only mens porn we are only talking about men’s sexuality. Men have always liked porn. 

    Anyone want to explain the decrease in divorce in the age of the internet? · 6 minutes ago

    I’ll see your decrease in divorce in the age of the internet and raise you a decrease in the marriage rate coupled with a rise in bastardy AND an overall decline in fertility.

    -E · 2 minutes ago

    So, I post a link that shows divorce going down and you are postulating an increase in divorce? And you think decrease in fertility is due to porn? Got a study to show me that?

    • #108
  19. Profile Photo Inactive
    @CandE
    Bryan G. Stephens

    Lucy Pevensie

    So by disagreeing with you I have poor character. How like a leftist. · 0 minutes ago

    Changing the subject and putting words in mouths.  Now that’s lefty.

    -E

    • #109
  20. Profile Photo Inactive
    @LucyPevensie
    Bryan G. Stephens

    Lucy Pevensie

    CandE

    Bryan G. Stephens

    Marshall

     

    I stopped reading after this sentance.  

    I agree.  And if you look at the kind of comments that people are making in defense of pornography, you can see woven through them all the destruction wrought on the psyche by pornography. None of the comments talk about sex as an expression of love.  All are entirely focused on men’s right to sexual release.  The comments all see sexuality as a unilateral experience of self gratification, not as one of the highest forms of self giving and communication.  They see marriage as a quid pro quo in which women give or withhold sexual fulfillment from their husbands. They are really sad. 

    So by disagreeing with you I have poor character. How like a leftist.

    I believe my comment was on the content of your comments, rather than on the content of your character.

    • #110
  21. Profile Photo Thatcher
    @BryanGStephens
    tabula rasa

    Bryan G. Stephens: When we talk about only mens porn we are only talking about men’s sexuality. Men have always liked porn. 

    Anyone want to explain the decrease in divorce in the age of the internet? · 4 minutes ago

    Bryan:  Because 13 million American men and women are cohabitating. Twenty years ago, less than three million Americans lived in cohabitational relationships.  If there’s no marriage at the beginning of a relationship, there will be no divorce at its end.  

    Cohabitational relationships are much more fragile than marriages.  The fact that the divorce rate has decreased slightly means that those who do marry are less likely to break up.  Overall, long-term relationships between the sexes is worse than ever.

    If you want to read a thoughtful analysis of the impacts of cohabitation, check out the 2008 report of the National Marriage Project, here. · 0 minutes ago

    Wow. So, porn is the cause of cohabitation now?

    There are problems with marriage, but there are lots of things to blame before we blame porn.

    • #111
  22. Profile Photo Member
    @
    Bryan G. Stephens: Porn can lead to couples trying some new things that expand on their sexual expression. Some couples might even watch it together and enhance their sexual play.

    This is an extremely modest positive compared with the negatives outlined in the video and in comment #174, for example.

    My wife and I once tried some soft-core porn for this purpose and found it didn’t help us.

    The porn that is widespread on the Internet now, and to which most men eventually gravitate, is extremely hard-core, graphic, and not a turn-on to a woman at all.  I dare you to try to get most women to watch that kind with you and see if it turns her on.

    I’ve actually already seen the articles you linked to.  The studies mentioned at the links seem shoddily done (e.g. “self-reported well-being”), and are far outweighed by the many studies showing the downsides of porn on psychological health and relationships.

    Most of these are rationalizations for an unhealthy habit that fuels an exploitative industry.

    • #112
  23. Profile Photo Thatcher
    @BryanGStephens
    CandE

    Bryan G. Stephens

    Lucy Pevensie

    So by disagreeing with you I have poor character. How like a leftist. · 0 minutes ago

    Changing the subject and putting words in mouths.  Now that’s lefty.

    -E · 1 minute ago

    I think I got called “sad”. Did I miss that? Sad for defending liberty?

    Where is Fred Cole when we need him?

    • #113
  24. Profile Photo Inactive
    @CoolHand
    Lucy Pevensie

    No one said that it would.  CoolHand suggested that porn addiction on a husband’s part was acceptable because (and of course this is his assumption) it must have been preceded by the wife’s doing something. Rather than challenging the assumption he was making, I pointed out that even if that were the case (a huge leap) it would not be an excuse. · 1 hour ago

    I’m not saying it makes it acceptable, I’m saying it explains it.

    You are positing that porn ruins marriages.

    I am positing that porn is only a symptom of what is truly ruining the marriage (whatever that turns out to be).

    You then reply that I’m a two year old.

    Misunderstanding and condescension on your part do not make my argument invalid.

    • #114
  25. Profile Photo Inactive
    @KCMulville

    Maybe I’m reading this all wrong, but I somewhat assumed that the point of the video was:

    • the human brain developed mechanisms to cope with basic biological needs (eating, sex, etc.)
    • when humans find themselves around abundant food, those brain mechanisms lead to obesity – – unless the mechanisms are brought under control
    • now, for the first time in human history, sexual stimulation is just as abundant — and as a result, human brains have jumped into a state of unhealthy addiction

    The issue is not so much the morality of pornography, as it is the sheer biology of the human brain. 

    The reading from the gospel jumped to mind because it seemed obvious that Jesus was trying to tell us to “control yourself.” It doesn’t much matter what the object of the addiction is; what matters is that we take steps to moderate and control our response. As the video made clear, what drives the addiction isn’t the depiction of female or male nudity – it’s the depiction of unusual behavior.

    The porn is in the novelty, not the nudity. 

    Without overt control, the brain gets addicted in times of abundance. Discipline and education are supposed to remedy that.

    • #115
  26. Profile Photo Thatcher
    @BryanGStephens

    My argument is that if porn is so bad that we would see more damage caused by it. So far, none of you have made that case.

    • #116
  27. Profile Photo Member
    @MollieHemingway

    Found the videot fascinating. It’s a fairly obvious point, I think, that porn rewires us. It reminded me of how, back in the day when I had a sex column, I wrote about my surprise that some of my male friends found porn to be a huge problem.

    Porn might feed the insecurity of women but it feeds off of the insecurity of men. And it perpetuates it. Or as I wrote:

    Porn creates a prison for men where they lose their confidence and ability to seduce actual women or maintain a healthy relationship. Rather than focusing on porn’s deleterious effects on women, cultural analysts should see it is fed by and cultivates male insecurity. Perhaps a proper first response would be for women to ease up on the rejection and show men that they are valuable and needed, loved and adored. Now that’s not saying that women should give it up preemptively or indiscriminately so that men don’t run to other sexual outlets. But certainly women should treat men in such away that acknowledges how, even in a post-feminist world, men shoulder tremendous responsibilities as bread-winners, protectors, husbands, fathers and lovers.

    • #117
  28. Profile Photo Thatcher
    @BryanGStephens
    CoolHand

    Lucy Pevensie

    No one said that it would.  CoolHand suggested that porn addiction on a husband’s part was acceptable because (and of course this is his assumption) it must have been preceded by the wife’s doing something. Rather than challenging the assumption he was making, I pointed out that even if that were the case (a huge leap) it would not be an excuse. · 1 hour ago

    I’m not saying it makes it acceptable, I’m saying it explains it.

    You are positing that porn ruins marriages.

    I am positing that porn is only a symptom of what is truly ruining the marriage (whatever that turns out to be).

    You then reply that I’m a two year old.

    Misunderstanding and condescension on your part do not make my argument invalid. · 5 minutes ago

    Hear hear.

    • #118
  29. Profile Photo Inactive
    @LarryKoler

    Very interesting discussion. Thanks, Nathan. 

    It’s very interesting to notice the women’s position (not only made by the women here, BTW) vs. the men’s position. Things don’t usually divide so sharply between the sexes here. It is impossible for a woman to know what it is like to be a man and vice versa. Nowhere is this more true than on this type of subject. 

    I really wish people would go to Alison Armstrong’s site and listen to Dennis Prager on relationships more. Armstrong was on Dennis’s show recently and she talked about how the chemical differences between men and women are very deep and they are represented in their respective behavior. You can turn this around, too: Men’s and women’s behavioral differences are deep and they are mirrored in the chemical dance that drives us. 

    Just an example. Armstrong poses this question to women: If you come home and find your husband watching football what should you do? Answer: ask him if wants a beer and maybe a pizza. 

    Men build testosterone during times like these. All the good things that men bring to the marriage come from this testosterone. 

    • #119
  30. Profile Photo Inactive
    @CandE
    Bryan G. Stephens

    CandE

    Bryan G. Stephens

    Lucy Pevensie

    So by disagreeing with you I have poor character. How like a leftist. · 0 minutes ago

    Changing the subject and putting words in mouths.  Now that’s lefty.

    -E · 1 minute ago

    I think I got called “sad”. Did I miss that? Sad for defending liberty?

    Where is Fred Cole when we need him? · 7 minutes ago

    Your comments were called “sad”.  Not you.

    -E

    • #120
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