Researchers make shocking discovery about the impact of frequent porn use on the body

With the rise of the internet, it didn't take a genius to figure out there would also be a boom in the porn industry. The days of faded magazines and secretive sections at the back of VHS stores are gone, and with the World Wide Web at our fingertips, adult entertainment has taken off in a whole new way.

After all, there's a reason that Pornhub is the 22nd most-viewed site on the internet.

While we know 2025 was a tough one for the porn giants of the internet due to various age verification laws, LADbible's 'For F**k's Sake' campaign reported that 77% of Gen Z internet surfers will admit to watching porn, with 4 in 10 saying they're worried they watch too much porn.

There are continued concerns about what young people are viewing online and how it could shape their views on what's acceptable in the bedroom, with the United Kingdom looking to make choking and strangulation porn a criminal offense.

Others are just generally concerned about what viewing 'too much' porn can do to us, which is something a team of researchers from Hungary's University of Pécs looked into. Worries that people watching too much adult material could lead to impaired sexual function might have been blown out of proportion.

As reported by PsyPost and published in the International Journal of Sexual Health, the reasons people turn to X-rated sites have more to do with their sexual health. It's said that watching pornography for enjoyment or curiosity can be linked to adaptive sexual functioning, whereas turning to it in times of stress is seen as a problematic version of emotional withdrawal.

Importantly, it goes against the common idea that frequently watching porn is harmful to us.

The team reiterated that a focus on how much porn someone consumes instead of the reasons why has led to this negative skew.

Norbert Meskó, a professor at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Pécs, explained: "A major gap in the literature is that pornography use is often evaluated mainly by how frequently people use it, even though frequency alone tells us very little about whether use is actually harmful."

Meskó added that the researchers wanted to understand the 'psychological function' of using pornography: "In other words, what people are trying to achieve with it. For example, some people use it out of curiosity or for sexual enjoyment, while others mainly use it to cope with stress, loneliness, or negative emotions.

“We were interested in whether these different motivations are linked to different patterns of sexual and emotional functioning."

890 Hungarian adults aged between 18 and 64 were surveyed, with an average age of 34. 600 were assigned female at birth, while 290 were assigned male at birth.

Using the Pornography Use Motivations Scale, subjects rated how often different reasons relate to their own consumption of adult materials.

Motivations were categorized into positive (seeking sexual pleasure, satisfying curiosity, and exploring fantasies) or negative (reducing stress, avoiding boredom, and distracting from negative emotions).

In terms of frequency, participants were simply asked to report their viewing habits, like 'never' or 'at least once a day'.

There were two distinct psychological profiles, with the first being those who are driven by positive motivations. Although they reported higher frequencies of pornography consumption, it wasn't associated with negative outcomes.

Importantly, these people were more likely to have sex for relational reasons and 'personal goal attainment'. The frequency with which they were viewing porn was linked to sexual exploration and enhancement.

The second profile was driven by negative motivations, with research suggesting a strong link with problematic pornography use.

These people tended to emotionally withdraw from intimacy with sexual partners.

Meskó concluded: "One somewhat surprising finding was that frequent use, when driven by positive motivations, was linked to less sexual deactivation — meaning less emotional withdrawal from sexuality. In contrast, only problematic use — not frequent use — was associated with these kinds of disengaged or avoidant sexual patterns.”

He reiterated that it's not how frequently you're viewing X-rated content that's the problem here, but more why you're using it.