This excerpt is from a YouTube video discussing the negative impacts of pornography on relationships and society. An expert speaker summarizes empirical findings and testimony: pornography consumers report lower desire to marry or have children, are more likely to commit adultery (3×) and engage in paid sexual encounters (4×), show decreased sensitivity toward women and less progressive gender-role beliefs, and around one-third of viewers are female. The speaker cites testimony exposure count (274 distinct references in 2005) and gives compulsive-use prevalence estimates (10% of adult males, 7% of adult females); he also claims belief changes can occur within 4 hours 48 minutes of exposure.
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So what are, when you think of that, Jill, like you know, someone talks to you and says, well, what do you mean? It has a negative impact. It's easy to generalize that. But do you have some top of the mind stats or data points that you kind of point to and say, hey, I mean, start here. And these are the things we know to be a reality because of all the data that's out there, or when you've testified to groups or Congress, what are the kind of studies that you have pointed to that you might give a. Obviously that could be a much, much longer conversation, but what are some of the main ones that you point to for, for those questions?
So some key things stand out. Some I summarized briefly a moment ago. But you know, there's, there's good information out there about what it takes to have a healthy, satisfying long term marriage and relationship. We know the factors that go into that. And for example, mutual belief, both people having a mutual belief in the institution of marriage, fidelity, both people believing we need to be true and faithful to one another, body, mind, spirit, mutual respect, trust, intimacy that strengthens the marital bond, a spiritual foundation, which isn't necessarily religious foundation, but some connection over the sanctity of life and sacred things in life, and a belief that relationships are permanent. This isn't just a thing we do out of convenience. And when the mood changes, we were out of there. So when we look at those characteristics of stable and happy relationships and then when we square that with the effects of pornography, they could not be more opposite. So when we look at the impact of pornography, and just as a quick take note, there were 274 different distinct references to my testimony in 2005. There's hundreds of studies and just some key highlights of those. We know that those who consume pornography, it doesn't even have to be addictive. They have less desire to marry, less desire to have children, they're three times more likely to commit adultery, they're four times more likely to engage in paid sexual encounters. So escorts, prostitutes, they have decreased sensitivity toward women and less progressive gender roles, meaning they have more backward ideas about men and women. And they see men and women less egalitarian perspectives. And that by the way, happens to women as well. The men shouldn't get all the bad rap with this. Approximately a third of pornography is viewed by females. We're seeing a rise in the number of females that are compulsive with this. And the stats actually show there's not that big of a difference between the male and the females. Who are compulsive in this area. 10% of males, 7% of females in adult US population. So when you think you have this material that's potent, it works very rapidly on the brain to change beliefs and attitudes and deaden one's spirit and spiritual sensitivity. This is really significant when you have something that we know that within 4 hours and 48 minutes of exposure starts changing beliefs about bodies, relationships, gender roles, that, that is something because in today's world that's one sitting of pornography consumption.
That's right.
It used to be decades ago, 4 hours and 48 minutes. It would have taken some real work to, to motor through that many magazine pages. But nowadays that, that's pretty easily acquired. And so I think many of the attitudes that we're hearing about rumblings of toxic masculinity and the manosphere, for example, I see it directly related to pornography consumption and the dramatic rise in that over the last 30, 30 plus years. We also know that pornography use contributes to decreased trust. So you need trust in a healthy relationship. And then when you tie in also sexual dissatisfaction. There's purpose and design for healthy sexuality to create healthy bonding and connection and fun pleasure in a healthy context. So when you start polluting that and it becomes a source of pain and compulsion and darkness and shame. We've now cut out a real foundational point of connection for couples. And we know that pornography does that over time. So. And then the last thing that I'd point to is the increased risk of separation and divorce. Well, that's an obvious one. We can't have healthy marriages long term if they're at greater risk of separation and divorce. And there's university research out of the University of Oklahoma that has shown that the increased risk of divorce goes up by almost 200%. Greater risk of divorce, 200% for those that are consuming pornography. And that's not at addictive levels. That's just people that are consuming one or both partners. So all in all, I have yet to see information or data that shows long term. This is helping couples form healthy, strong bonds and relationships. That's not what's happening. Even if people believe no short term, I really like this. This really gave spark or interest or we learned X, Y or Z. Long term that doesn't hold true. And for one or both, at some point that is going to. This is what I see clinically happen in my slice of the world. It skids out from underneath them. One becomes compulsive with it or starts looking at more deviant material. They don't stay parallel in that experience, even if they're looking at it jointly. Together, Mutually. And they think, this is great. Look how modern and evolved we are. We're a cool modern couple. This is what we look at. I don't see couples where that stays parallel and true over the long haul.
