Date of Award
Spring 5-6-2023
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Department/Major
Biology
First Advisor
Cindy Struckman-Johnson
Second Advisor
Jean Caraway
Third Advisor
BreAnne Danzi
Keywords
Porn, Pornography, Consumption, Use, College, Student
Subject Categories
Other Mental and Social Health | Psychology
Abstract
While pornography consumption has been studied many times in the past decade, little has been done on assessing the gender differences behind it. This study sought out to find those differences. A total of 306 University of South Dakota students participated in an online pornography survey. There was 231 females and 75 males. When asked about intentionally consuming pornography, there was 241 responses, 180 females and 61 males. Of those responses, 57 males (93%) and 142 females (79%) said they intentionally consume pornography. As hypothesized, a higher percentage of men said they consumed porn regularly (34%) than did women (4%). Although hypothesized that men would have greater acceptance of pornography use, results showed there was no difference in teen and adult consumption (9% combined acceptance in teens and 40% in adults). It was hypothesized that men and women would have different motives for their pornography consumption. However, men and women had the same top three motives, sexual pleasure, masturbation material, and stress relief. Women, however, were more likely to choose stress relief as their top motive (73%) than men (39%). It was hypothesized that pornography consumption would increase during Covid for both men and women. While most men reported they consumed more (50%), most women reported it had no effect on their consumption (68%). Exploratory material looked at the favorite types of pornography that are being consumed. Men and women had the same top three types: Professionally Produced, College-Aged Actors, and Homemade. However, women were more likely to chose Bondage and S&M (19.5%) than men (5%).
Recommended Citation
Selleck, Abbey, "Assessing Gender Differences in USD Students in the Consumption of Pornography" (2023). Honors Thesis. 294.
https://red.library.usd.edu/honors-thesis/294