Watching Pornography Increases Support for Adultery and Same-Sex Marriage

The Story: New scholarly analysis suggests that the more exposure heterosexual men have to pornography, the more likely they are to support adultery, pre-marital sex, and same-sex marriage.

The Background: "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 and study co-author Paul Wright told the Washington Examiner.

"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," Wright added. "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." 

In a related study published in the American Journal of Media Psychology, Wright found that males who have recently consumed Internet pornography are more likely to approve of premarital and extramarital sex. 

This was the case even after for controlling for the contribution of age, ethnicity, and religiosity.  Continue at Joe Carter