Pornography and Correlation of Aggressive Effects on Men - Research Paper Example

Pornography and Correlation of Aggressive Effects on Men Pornography and correlation of aggressive effects on men Introduction Thelevel of pornography consumption has increased since the introduction of the digital technology. Pornography is anything that displays or describes people’s body or the sexual acts in ways that arouse sexual feelings. According to the research outcomes, exposure to these materials may result into harmful effects that can be compared to drugs. Their effects are more pronounced in men (Sparks, 2010). Several researches have been conducted to prove that pornography increases men aggression. Several researchers also think that there is no relationship between sexual aggression and erotic materials (Sparks, 2010). Pornography and correlation of aggressive effects on men Bernstein, Penner, Clarke-Stewart and Roy (2007) assert that men who watch pornography are more likely to commit rape and other forms of violence towards women. In the researchers’ experiment, the male participants in a room were asked to administer an electric shock every time the person in another room made a mistake. The individual in the other room was an employee who was also a subject in the experiment. The intensity of the shock could be varied. Concurrently, the amount of shock represented the amount of violence. There was no shock, but the subjects in the experiment believed that the shock was real. Before the experiment, some men in the experiment watched a film highlighting several men raped a woman. The study outcome showed that men who watched the film administered more shock than those who did not watch it (Berstein et al., 2007). The researchers concluded that pornography increases resentment especially towards women. The researchers also discovered that aggressive pornography affects men differently. For instance, very promiscuous and hostile men are more affected compared to men who are not hostile towards women (Berstein et al., 2007). According to Davis, Norris, George, Martell and Heiman (2006), pornography enhances sexual aggression. The researchers came to this conclusion after evaluating various variables like the attitudes that increase sexual aggression (rape and the actual aggression behavior). The researchers proved that exposure to pornography especially the violent ones and alcohol increases hostility. This is because these materials increase men’s attraction to sexual aggression, which in turn increases their probability of practicing rape. The researchers identified sexual arousal as a major factor that increases the aggression. The increase in sexual arousal is one of the causes of the increase in rape cases, in many countries. Regular exposure to rape films increases the sexual arousal that encourages rape. The researchers also compared men with sexual behaviors with other men. They discovered that rapists have higher sexual arousal compared to other men. This is due to increased sexual stimuli that motivate the aggressiveness (Davis et al., 2006). Several men who are addicted to pornography deny that it affects them negatively. However, according to MacKinnon (1989), pornography has some connection with sexual aggressiveness. She suggests that excessive exposure makes it difficult or impossible for men to know when sex is forced or when they are raping. According to the study, pornography works by making men especially the youths to think that sexism is ‘cool’ in the contemporary society. This is because persons enjoy, practice, and learn sexism through the process. MacKinnon (1989) believes that the male supremacy spreads and is made real through pornography. Several men have been hostile and aggressive to women; however, they choose to be silent because they are typically uncomfortable talking about it. This current increase in rape cases is contributed by the increase of pornography in the current society. Several people do not believe this because the effects of exposure to pornography are not immediate. Additionally, it does not affect men in the same way. This has increased controversy regarding the effects of pornography on men (Vega & Malamuth, 2007). The production and distribution of pornographic materials is seen as traffic in sexual slavery based on its effects (Vega & Malamuth, 2007). Earlier study results showed that pornography has no connection with the escalation in sexual violence in society. However, Coon & Mitter (2010) proved that sexual violence has increased due to the current increase in aggressive pornography images in the mass media. This pornography shows the use of violence, threats and power to force someone especially women to engage in sex. These researchers also discovered that exposure to such materials increases audiences’ aggressive sexual desires, beliefs in rape myths, and the destructive behaviors (Coon & Mitterer, 2010). Malamuth & Ceniti (1986) also carried a study to determine the effects of continuous contact to aggressive and nonviolent pornography. The researchers randomly selected 42 men and grouped them into three groups. The groups consisted of persons who made them watch sexual violent videos, those who watched sexual nonviolent videos and the rest who did not watch any sexual videos at all. The study took about one month. After the experiment, the subjects engaged in other activities that they believed were not part of the experiment to assess their aggressiveness. The researchers discovered that both exposure to violent and non-violent sexual materials increases sexual aggression. This implies that such continuous exposure to any form of pornography whether violent or not increases men likelihood of raping (Malamuth & Ceniti, 1986). Some researchers think that the influence of erotic media depends on men’s personalities and their intelligence differences. For instance, they believe that an intelligent person will think critically about the effects of his actions after watching the sexual film. This will prevent him from engaging in violent sexual behaviors. Bogaert, Woodard & Hafer (1999) also conducted a study to examine the relationship between the effects of pornography and a man’s intelligent. The researchers randomly selected 185 undergraduate men. They assessed their IQ and grouped them according to their IQ. They then gave the men several sexual films to watch. After watching the films, the researchers assessed the men interpersonal behaviors when interacting with women. The study results showed that men with lower IQ were more sexually suggestive to women after watching the erotic video (Bogaert, Woodard & Hafer, 1999). The men with higher IQ were also sexually suggestive to women after watching the films; however, this was not comparable to persons with the lower IQ. The study also showed that men with lower IQ were physically closer to women after watching the films compared those with higher IQ. Consequently, the researchers concluded that men’s intelligence affects their sexual behaviors after watching pornography (Bogaert, Woodard & Hafer, 1999). Garcia (1984) also proved the correlations between pornography and the general attitude towards women. He not only wanted to examine the effects of sexual materials on rape, but he also examined their effects on men’s feelings towards women’s liberal movements. The researchers believe that exposure to sexual materials is related to the traditional feeling about women in various settings, such as marital relationships and autonomy (Garcia, 1984). The researcher selected about 115 students of the ages 18 to 38. The students filled the questionnaires containing a question about the sexual materials. The analysis of the questionnaires showed that erotic materials affects men’s attitudes towards women. Additionally, the men who watch them have a negative outlook towards women independent movements. This is because the men are dominating while the females are submissive during several erotic films. This relationship between men and women in the films affects the attitude of men who watch them. Additionally, those individuals who are more exposed to the sexual media have traditional feeling towards rape (Garcia, 1984). Yang and Youn (2012) also prove that proved that erotic films enhance male aggressiveness. In their study, the researchers analyzed the effects of pornography on the subjects’ aggression. Aggression was determined using the human faces used as targets during dart throwing. The researchers randomly selected 120 male college students who were classified into different groups. One groups consisted of those who watched the nonviolent sexual materials, the second group consisted of those who viewed violent materials, while the third group consisted of those who watched the non-sexual and nonviolent materials. The result showed that participant in the three groups behaved differently when given human pictures as the dart throwing targets. Exposure to violent materials made the subjects to be more aggressive when throwing the darts (Yang & Youn, 2012). Additionally, those who watched both the nonviolent and the violent sexual films chose more females faces as their dart targets. Those who watched the nonviolent and nonsexual films were not violent, and they chose less female faces. The researchers discovered that the level of aggressiveness differs according the contents of the pornographic materials that one watches (Yang & Youn, 2012). The researchers concluded that men’s hostility increases due to exposure to violent erotic media. They explained the possible reason for this using the social learning theory. According to this theory, people differentiate bad and good behaviors depending on how the social media reward and condemn the behaviors. For instance, male aggressiveness increases after watching aggressive erotic programs where violence against women is portrayed as reward (Yang & Youn, 2012). According to Kingston, Fedoroff, Firestone, Curry and Bradford (2008), the exposure to the sexual materials increases sexual aggression. The researchers proved this by studying the relationship between pornographic consumption and the criminal recidivism. They randomly chose 341 child molesters. They analyzed the molesters behaviors based on the model of sexual aggressiveness. The consumption of pornography was analyzed using the self-report while recidivism was analyzed using the information retrieved from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The indices of recidivism that was evaluated for 15 year after the release included the entire criminal recidivism index and the divisions of aggressive recidivism, and sexual recidivism alone (Kingston et al., 2008). The result of the study showed that both the frequency use of pornography and the pornography showed consistency with the researchers’ prediction. The result also showed that the high usage of sexual materials increases the aggressiveness of the higher-risk offenders more that the lower risk offenders. In addition, the content of the erotic materials affects both the higher and the lower risk offenders (Kingston et al., 2008). Padgett and Brislin-Slutz (1989) oppose the idea that pornography increases sexual aggression. The researchers supported their views through a study which they used 204 participants. A hundred and eighty four of them were psychology students who were exposed to erotic films for a few hours while the rest were the 20 patrons who view the films for more hours. The attitudes of the subjects in the experiment were analyzed using questionnaires. The study showed that the attitude of men towards women is not reliant on the time used in watching the films (Padgett & Brislin-Slutz, 1989). This is because the patrons who spent more time watching the film had favorable feelings towards women. Consequently, the researchers concluded that exposure to erotic videos do not increase the sexual violence in the society (Padgett & Brislin-Slutz, 1989). Moreover, they believe that pornography can be beneficial in reducing the sex crimes. This is because the increase in the free pornography in 1998 in Denmark led to the reduction of sexual violent cases in the following years (Padgett & Brislin-Slutz, 1989). Davis (1997) studied pornography effects on men by examining a sample of men who willingly viewed the sexual films after borrowing them in non-experimental settings unlike other researchers. The researcher wanted to determine the correlation between the men who rented the videos and their feelings toward sexual violence and feminism (Davis et al., 1997). The aim of the study was to examine the correlation between the number of videos borrowed by one man and his likelihood of engaging in the aggressive sexual behaviors. The researcher randomly selected 194 men who watched the videos of their choices. He then evaluated their feeling about constitutional element that was against the marital rape and their punishments. The researcher found out that there was no link connecting exposure to pornography and sexual violence. Consequently, he believes that pornography does not increase the sexual aggressiveness. However, the sample used in the research was very small to bring one to a valid conclusion (Davis et al., 1997). Conclusion Pornography and men’s aggressiveness are connected. According to the outcomes of the research, aggressiveness increases because several people copy what they see in the sexual films. The researchers have proved this hypothesis after comparing individuals who use the erotic media with those who do not. The researches show that continuous exposure to the erotic media with violent contents increase the male aggressiveness (Padgett & Brislin-Slutz, 1989). Moreover, studies prove that personality and intelligence affects his likelihood of being aggressive after watching the films. Some researchers assert that there is no association between sexual media and violence. They assert that exposure to pornography reduces the occurrence of sexual violence. This was proved by claiming that the cases of sexual violence reduced in Denmark after free pornographic materials were introduced in the country. References Bernstein, D., Penner, L. A., Clarke-Stewart, A., & Roy, E. (2007). Psychology. Boston, Mass: Houghton Mifflin. Bogaert, F., Woodard, U. & Hafer, L. (1999). Intellectual Ability and Reaction to Pornography. Journal of sex Research, 36(3), 283-291. Coon, D. & Mitterer, J. O. (2010). Introduction to psychology: Gateways to mind and behavior. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Davis, C., Norris, J., George, H., Martell, J., & Heiman J. L. (2006). Men’s likelihood of sexual aggression: The influence of alcohol, sexual arousal, and violent pornography. Aggressive Behavior, 32, 581-589. Retrieved from http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/publications/PDF/Davis%20et%20al%202006%20violence.pdf Gracia, T. (1984). Exposure to pornography and attitudes about women and rape: A correlation study. Journal of sex Research, 22(3), 378-385. Kingston, A., Fedoroff, P., Firestone, P., Curry, S., & Bradford J. M. (2008). Pornography use and sexual aggression: The impact of frequency and type of pornography use on recidivism among sexual offenders. Aggressive Behavior, 34, 1-11. Retrieved from http://www.ccoso.org/library%20articles/aggressivebehavior.pdf Malmuth, M. & Ceniti, J. (1986). Repeated exposure to violent and nonviolent pornography: likelihood of raping ratings and laboratory aggression against women. Aggressive Behavior, 12(2), 129-137. Malamuth, M. & Vega, V. (2007). Predicting sexual aggression: The role of pornography in the context of general and specific risk factors. Aggressive Behavior, 33, 104–117. MacKinnon, C. A. (1989). Sexuality, pornography, and method: “pleasure under patriarchy”. Ethics, 99(2), 314-346. Retrieved from http://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/MacKinnon-Sexuality-Pornography-and-Method-Pleasure-under-Patriarchy.pdf Padgett, V. R., & Brislin-Slutz, J. (1989). Pornography, erotica, and attitudes towards women: The effects of repeated exposure. Journal of Sex Research, 26(4), 479-491. Sparks, G. G. (2010). Media effects research: A basic overview. Boston, MA: Wadsworth. Yang, D. & Youn, G. (2012). Effects of exposure to pornographic on male aggressive behavioral tendencies. The open psychology journal, 5, 1-10. Retrieved from http://benthamscience.com/open/topsyj/articles/V005/1TOPSYJ.pdf Read More