It started out as viewing pornography. And then, gradually, it metastasized to infect every area of his life.
“I was destroying everything—relationships, opportunities, even my own sense of self,” Max said. “I felt like I was just a collection of bad habits wearing human skin.
“There was no joy, drive, or hope—just me, stuck in a cycle of destruction. I could see the damage I was doing, but it was less like a choice and more like sinking slowly into a swamp. At some point, you stop trying to get out and just let yourself drown.”
Max’s reflections on how pornography impacted his life underscore a scientific truth: pornography use can impair one’s ability to make good decisions.
At its worst, consumption of pornography can escalate into a behavioral addiction. This addiction disrupts the brain’s reward, motivation, and self-control circuits, making it harder to resist urges or weigh long-term consequences, even when the harms are clear.
That’s why people like Max often find that their pornography habit slowly undermines other areas of their life. It may lead to neglecting responsibilities, relationships, personal and professional goals, and choosing instant gratification and pleasure even when it leads to long-term pain.
Ask Your Legislators to Protect Children from Online Pornography!
German Researchers Examine Pornography’s Impact on Decision-making
In 2013, behavioral addiction experts in Germany set out to assess how viewing pornography and experiencing arousal would affect the ability to make good decisions. In the decision-making literature, there are two types of decisions assessed: decisions based on prior information given, called “decisions under risk,” and decisions where there is no prior information given, and subjects have to learn which choice is the better option, called “decisions under ambiguity.”
To study this, researchers had 82 heterosexual males answer questionnaires and rate how sexually aroused they were prior to testing. Then, participants viewed pornographic pictures and were asked to rate both the pictures and their level of sexual arousal after viewing the pictures. The men then performed a modified version of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), which is the most frequently used test to measure the ambiguous decision-making process.
In the original IGT, participants have a goal of winning as much money as possible by choosing from four decks of cards that are lying face down. Two of the decks (decks A and B) result in high gains but occasionally very high losses and are considered “disadvantageous,” and the other two decks (C and D) result in small gains, but occasional very small losses and are considered “advantageous” in the long run.
In the current study, researchers modified the IGT by placing either pornographic or neutral pictures on the decks of cards. Half of the participants performed the IGT with pornographic pictures placed on the advantageous decks, and the other half performed the IGT with pornographic pictures placed on the disadvantageous decks.
In line with what the researchers expected, the study found “decision-making performance was better when sexual pictures were associated with the advantageous alternatives and worse when the sexual pictures were linked to disadvantageous alternatives.” Put simply, porn impaired their ability to make good decisions.
Furthermore, participants that reported the greatest level of arousal after viewing the pornographic pictures performed the worst on the decision making test. The researchers also pointed out that individuals who experience greater excitation to pornographic pictures might be more prone to developing a pornography addiction.
Lastly, the study reported that the average age that the participants were first exposed to pornography was 15. Studies have found that 1) earlier age of first exposure is associated with an increased risk of negative effects, including addiction, and 2) adolescents are more sensitive to rewards (i.e. pornography).
If we want the next generation to grow up into adults who are capable of making healthy, long-term choices, we need to teach them the potential negative effects of pornography. Avoiding teaching them the pitfalls of porn would be a bad decision, and there is nothing ambiguous about that.
