Title

Pornography, Relationship Alternatives, and Intimate Extradyadic Behavior

Authors

Authors

A. M. Gwinn; N. M. Lambert; F. D. Fincham;J. K. Maner

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

Soc. Psychol. Personal Sci.

Keywords

pornography; dating; relationships; alternatives; infidelity; INVESTMENT MODEL; RELATIONSHIP MAINTENANCE; ATTRACTIVE ALTERNATIVES; INTERNET PORNOGRAPHY; COMMITMENT; SATISFACTION; INATTENTION; INFIDELITY; COGNITION; SCALE; Psychology, Social

Abstract

Two studies tested the hypothesis that exposure to pornography among romantically committed individuals would increase the likelihood of intimate extradyadic behavior and that this effect would be mediated by heightened perceptions of romantic alternatives. Study 1 (n = 74) found that participants primed with sexually explicit material reported having higher quality romantic alternatives. Study 2 (n = 291) showed that initial pornography consumption predicted intimate extradyadic behavior 12 weeks later even after controlling for initial extradyadic behavior, sociosexuality, relationship length, baseline relationship satisfaction, social desirability, and participant gender and race. The relationship between pornography and intimate extradyadic behavior was mediated by perceptions of the quality of romantic alternatives. These results suggest that sexually explicit material can provoke intimate extradyadic behavior via its effect on perceptions of alternative partners.

Journal Title

Social Psychological and Personality Science

Volume

4

Issue/Number

6

Publication Date

1-1-2013

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

699

Last Page

704

WOS Identifier

WOS:000336436900009

ISSN

1948-5506

Share

COinS