Study: Habitual porn users more likely to support same-sex 'marriage'
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| Same Sex Marriage (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 5, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new study soon to be published has found that men who watch the most online pornography are significantly more likely to support same-sex “marriage.”
“Our study suggests that the more heterosexual men – especially less educated heterosexual men – watch pornography, the more supportive they become of same-sex marriage,” Indiana University Assistant Professor Paul Wright told The Washington Examiner.
A review of 500 men over six years found that “pornography consumption did prospectively predict support for same-sex marriage,” according to an abstract of the article, which is soon to be published in the journal Communication Research.
“Since a portion of individuals' sexual attitudes come from the media they consume, it makes sense that pornography viewers would have more positive attitudes towards same-sex marriage,” Wright said.
“Pornography adopts an individualistic, non-judgmental stance on all kinds of non-traditional sexual behaviours and same-sex marriage attitudes are strongly linked to attitudes about same-sex sex.
“If people think individuals should be able to decide for themselves whether to have same-sex sex, they will also think that individuals should be able to decide for themselves whether to get married to a partner of the same-sex.”
University of Texas sociology professor Mark Regnerus first mentioned the link between porn and gay "marriage" last December in The Public Discourse. Surveys from Regnerus' New Family Structures Study showed that 54 percent of men aged 23-39 who watched porn “every day or almost every day” strongly agreed that gay and lesbian marriage should be legal.
A mere 13 percent of those who viewed explicit material monthly or even less often shared those views.
Heavy viewers of pornography were also far more likely to believe “marriage is an outdated institution” and that homosexuals parent as well as heterosexuals. Some 63 percent of heavy users agreed with the latter statement, versus 26 percent of the lightest consumers.
Psychologists have turned an increasingly critical eye toward the role pornography plays in relationships and society. Studies show continued exposure to porn can literally rewire the brain.
Upon hearing of the new study, Regnerus blogged, “Despite the negative press I get, friends, rest assured: I’m not making this stuff up!”
No one has questioned the competence of the new study. Researcher Paul Wright has written extensively about pornography and sexual relationships. Ashley K. Randall, a former Fulbright scholar, studies the effects of stress on romantic relationships.
Both used data gathered over a five-year period by National Science Foundation grant recipients.
The National Science Foundation could be the subject of one of its own studies. In 2010, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-NE, revealed that some NSF employees spent as much as 20 percent of their workday viewing pornography.
“In the end, contrary to what we might wish to think, young adult men’s support for redefining marriage may not be entirely the product of ideals about expansive freedoms, rights, liberties, and a noble commitment to fairness,” Regnerus wrote. “It may be, at least in part, a byproduct of regular exposure to diverse and graphic sex acts.”
Wright and Randall's study also found exposure to the university environment also increased support for redefining marriage. “Education was also positively associated with support for same-sex marriage,” according to the article's abstract.
