YOUNG boys exposed to pornography are more aggressive in their attitudes towards women, research reveals.
And the younger a man is when he first sees pornography, the more likely he is to want power over women, scientists found.
The study of 330 men found the average age of first seeing pornography is 13, but some had been exposed, accidentally or otherwise, when they were just five.
The US research follows other studies which show that pornography, which is becoming increasingly hardcore in the internet age, warps men’s attitudes to the other sex.
It comes as yesterday’s Daily Mail highlighted a series of cases where women had lost their lives to men addicted to extreme porn.
‘Porn often shows men dictating the activities, controlling women’s bodies, and being physically violent and aggressive against women,’ said the co-author of the latest study, Christina Richardson from the University of Nebraska. ‘Men exposed young to these images of women may want this more in their sex lives and real lives.
‘These men, we found, endorsed power over women and said women should be subservient to men. They also said that things worked better when men were in charge.’
The research confirmed the US team’s expectation that men would behave more aggressively towards women and be more promiscuous after being exposed to pornography at a young age. In the men they studied, the age at which they first saw porn ranged from five to 26.
Unexpectedly, however, it was men who had watched porn for fewer years, seeing it first at an older age, who behaved more like ‘playboys’. Lead author Alyssa Bischmann, also from the University of Nebraska, said: ‘We did not expect men exposed to porn at an older age to be more likely than men exposed at a younger age to want to behave in a more promiscuous way.
‘One theory to explain this is that more years of seeing pornography makes men more anxious about matching the performance in porn films when it comes to real-world sex.
‘They want to live up to the norms that they see in porn and so sex becomes a more negative experience.
‘Men who saw porn later in life may not feel the same pressure and so may feel more confident about having sex with more women.’
Studies show that almost 90 per cent of men watch pornography, many from a young age, with social media sites facing criticism for allowing vulnerable teenagers access to explicit images. The researchers presented their findings, based on 46 questions given to men about pornography, at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Washington.
A majority of men said their first exposure to pornography was accidental rather than deliberate or forced.
On the unexpected finding that men who saw porn later were more promiscuous, the report added: ‘That finding has sparked many more questions and potential research ideas because it was so unexpected based on what we know about gender role socialisation and media exposure.’
© Daily Mail