Over the course of 2016, people around the globe spent 191,625,000 days watching Pornhub, with the United States leading the world with its hours of consumption. In all those hours spent viewing, have you ever stopped to wonder if your NSFW habits are healthy? Well, scientists at the Journal of Sexual Medicine did, and what they found might surprise you.
Inverse reported that after surveying 830 people, scientists discovered three very distinct types of porn viewers: Recreational, highly distressed non-compulsive, and compulsive. These results were based on viewing habits and three measure of pornography use: Sexual satisfaction, sexual avoidance, and sexual dysfunction.
Which one are you?
Recreational
Making up 75.5% of those surveyed, the recreational viewers rank low on all three dimensions of pornography use. According to the study, “Recreational users reported higher sexual satisfaction and lower sexual compulsivity, avoidance, and dysfunction.”
Highly Distressed Non-Compulsive
The second cluster surveyed make up 12.7% of those surveyed. Ranking higher on the dimensions, these viewers experience high levels of emotional distress while viewing porn, but they aren’t compulsive users, meaning they don’t necessarily need it, or spend an excessive amount of time looking for it. This group was considered by researchers to be “at-risk.”
Compulsive
The third and final group makes up 11.8% of surveyed viewers. Compulsive porn viewers seek out explicit content frequently, making it an addictive habit; however unlike the highly distressed non-compulsive viewer, they reported lower levels of emotional distress while watching.
With 10% of online activity dedicated to getting people off, the researchers who performed the study were hoping to gain a better understanding of how people consume adult content by looking deeper at the viewers and less at the habit itself.