BYU study shows all porn consumption negatively impacts relationships

A new study from Brigham Young University has concluded that all pornography, not just hardcore or violent depictions, has a negative impact on real-life sexual relationships for consumers.

According to the research conducted by Brian J. Willoughby, a professor at the university's  School of Family Life, and graduate student Carson R. Dover, people should refrain from porn consumption if they want to maintain healthy long-term relationships.



"Couples should know that viewing pornography is a risk factor in their relationship," Willoughby told KSL, adding that couples who want a future together should avoid it altogether. "It's not just aggressive pornography that leads to negative outcomes."

In their research, the scholars accounted for differences between "mainstream" and more extreme types of porn.

 "One of the really interesting things for me is I assumed we were going to find it was maybe the aggressive, nonconsensual pornography that was affecting relationships," said Willoughby. "We found there was no difference. Any pornography use or increase was always linked to less stability and less satisfaction in the relationship — no matter what other things we looked at."

As the Daily Mail reported, the BYU study surveyed 3,500 people who were about 38 years old and in relationships on their porn habits and satisfaction with their partners. 

"Fifty-five percent were on their first marriage, 23 percent were cohabiting, 12 percent had remarried, eight percent were dating and two percent were in an open relationship," the outlet reported of the study.

Out of the people interviewed, 72 percent called themselves heterosexual and 17 percent said they were homosexual. The remainder said they were bisexual.

Regardless of the category of porn, those who consumed were more likely to answer that they were unhappy in their relationships.

Around 25 percent of Americans — approximately 82 million people — watch pornography every month, and men are four times more likely to consume it than women, according to the Daily Mail. 

"We didn't explore how sexual orientation influenced the results so I can't really speak to what the effect might have been," Willoughby told the publication. "[But] generally speaking, those who identify as non-heterosexual report higher pornography use rates than those who identify as heterosexual and that was the case in this dataset."