Watching porn can make you sexually aggressive: Study

New York: Spending too much time watching pornography can make you sexually aggressive, new research has found.

The analysis of 22 studies from seven different countries found that pornography consumption is associated with sexual aggression across the countries among both males and females.

Associations were stronger for verbal than physical sexual aggression, although both were significant, the study said.

"The general pattern of results suggested that violent content may be an exacerbating factor,” wrote the researchers from Indiana University and the University of Hawaii at Manoa, US.

The collected data looked at self-reports of pornography consumption and acts of sexual aggression, including sexual harassment and the use of force or threats to, as the study puts it, “obtain sex”, vocativ.com reported.

The researchers acknowledge that the causes of sexual aggression are complex and that “many pornography consumers are not sexually aggressive”. 

But they ultimately concluded that “the accumulated data leave little doubt that, on the average, individuals who consume pornography more frequently are more likely to hold attitudes conducive to sexual aggression and engage in actual acts of sexual aggression than individuals who do not consume pornography or who consume pornography less frequently”.

The study was published in the Journal of Communication.