Pornography use among heterosexual men as a learning context

Abstract

Currently, there is growing concern about the impact that pornography consumption can have on both affective-sexual relationships and sexual violence. This article analyses, from a psychological perspective, the multiple learning processes that its consumption makes possible for heterosexual men, taking into account the contextual and social variables in which this practice takes place. The aim is to answer questions such as: how pornography consumption influences sexual arousal, why pornographic content of increasing violence is consumed, why pornography is consumed on a massive scale, what behavioral rules are drawn from pornography and what consequences pornography consumption has on interpersonal relationships. The linguistic labelling of the content of pornography as "sexual practices" rather than "violence" is one of the key variables that could facilitate the generalization and transfer of these learnings to the interpersonal context. Scientific analyses such as the one proposed here make it possible to reduce the influence of normative and decontextualized explanations of phenomena such as the consumption of pornography, and to favor a critical review of it. In this way, the aim is to unmask some of the mechanisms that contribute to the maintenance of this practice and its possible consequences on the "sexuality" of its consumers and on the "sexual" relationships they establish with women.