Men who watch a lot of porn ‘feel unsatisfied in their relationships,’ study finds

Last year, the American state of Utah made headlines around the world when it declared pornography a ‘public health hazard’.

Watching porn has been linked to everything from addiction to violence against women – and a new meta-analysis of 50 previous studies has found it harms relationships.

Specifically, men who watch pornography tend to rate themselves as being less satisfied in their relationships – based on data from 50,000 people.

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Curiously, though, the same does not apply to women who watch porn.

Pornography is enormously popular – estimates suggest that between 4% and 30% of all websites are pornographic.

In the study published in Human Communication Research, the researchers write, ‘Fifty studies collectively including more than 50,000 participants from 10 countries were located across the interpersonal domains of sexual and relational satisfaction and the intrapersonal domains of body and self satisfaction.

‘Pornography consumption was associated with lower interpersonal satisfaction outcomes in cross-sectional surveys, longitudinal surveys, and experiments. But analyses by sex indicted significant results for men only.’