Over 100 quick stats and findings from an ever-growing body of research that details the effects of porn for individuals, relationships, and society.
83% of active 2020 sex trafficking cases involved online solicitation, which is overwhelmingly the most common tactic traffickers use to solicit sex buyers.
In comparison to couples who never viewed porn, a 2011 study found that those who watched porn alone reported twice the rate of cheating, and individuals who viewed porn alone and with their partners reported three times the rate of cheating.
Over 46% of young people reported that they saw online porn for the first time when it just “popped up”, and 22% reported that someone else showed it to them when they weren’t expecting it.
In a study of casually dating adults, zero women reported that their partner consumed pornography daily or every other day. But in reality, 43% of casually dating men in the study reported this level of heavy porn consumption.
Despite porn’s promise of improving consumers’ sex lives, research shows that consuming porn is associated with decreased sexual satisfaction.
According to a nationally representative survey of U.S. teens, 84.4% of 14 to 18-year-old males and 57% of 14 to 18-year-old females have viewed pornography.
Qualitative research reveals that young women often feel pressured to play out the “scripts” their male partners had learned from porn —they feel badgered into having sex in uncomfortable positions, faking sexual responses, and consenting to unpleasant or painful acts.
According to studies analyzing the content of popular porn videos, at least 1 in 3 and as many as 9 in 10 porn videos depict sexual violence or aggression.
According to an analysis of over 130,000 porn titles, “teen” is the most common word used in porn titles.
Porn consumers tend to be less committed to their partners.
People who use porn as a self-soothing technique tend to have some of the lowest reports of emotional and mental wellbeing according to a 2017 study.
According to a report of prosecuted sex trafficking cases in the U.S., the majority of coercive tactics used by traffickers (59%) were non-physical, compared to 41% of tactics involving physical coercion.
Even quitting porn for a short time can lessen its negative effects and have positive effects on consumers' lives and relationships.
Research shows that those with an interest in extreme or degrading porn are more likely to reenact porn scenes during sex with a partner.
While most porn consumers are generally unconcerned about the potential mistreatment of porn performers, about 70% of porn consumers who do learn about mistreatment in the porn industry take some form of action to combat it, including changing their porn habits.
In more committed relationships, only 46% of women accurately reported how much their partner consumed porn with nearly 40% of men reporting more consumption than their partners believed was occurring, according to a 2017 study.
Research shows that even individuals who are accepting of pornography tend to experience psychological distress when their own partners consume pornography.
A 2017 poll found that the more porn a man consumes, the more likely he is to be dissatisfied with his penis size. And the same goes for women with male partners— the more porn they consume, the less satisfied they are with their partner’s penis size.
Studies consistently show that porn is linked to lower relationship satisfaction and lower relationship quality.
A study of women in relationships with men who consume porn found that the frequency of the man’s porn consumption was negatively correlated with the woman’s sense of self-esteem, level of relationship quality, and sexual satisfaction.
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