Scientists Say "Go Ahead, Keep Gooning"

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Most strikingly, the researchers found that participants who reported frequent pornography use were less likely to experience problematic outcomes. However, those who primarily used it for coping and managing stress were more likely to experience symptoms of problematic use, indicating that frequency isn’t the main indicator of whether it’s actually harmful.

“One somewhat surprising finding was that frequent use, when driven by positive motivations, was linked to less sexual deactivation — meaning less emotional withdrawal from sexuality,” Meskó told PsyPost. “In contrast, only problematic use — not frequent use — was associated with these kinds of disengaged or avoidant sexual patterns.”

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Adult content has never been as accessible as it is now, thanks to the internet. Hell, online smut played a major role in the rise of the web itself in the 1990s.

With that glut of porn, some have voiced concerns that some people are consuming too much of the stuff or even becoming addicted, which they claim could have consequences like regulating emotions or impaired sexual functioning.

But as PsyPost reports, these concerns may be overblown. Researchers at the University of Pécs in Hungary have found that it doesn’t matter how frequently one watches porn; the reasons why somebody indulges in the stuff are far more predictive of their sexual health.

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As detailed in a new paper published in the International Journal of Sexual Health, the researchers found that positive motivations, such as “enhancing sexual pleasure, exploring fantasies, or deepening intimacy,” were “associated with frequent but non-problematic pornography use and with adaptive sexual regulation.”

However, those with “negative motivations,” such as “stress reduction, emotional escape, or avoidance of discomfort,” were strongly linked to “sexual system hyperactivation, emotion regulation difficulties, and impaired relational functioning.”

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