Edward E. Ware

Factors Affecting Viewing Time of Pornography

Summary This study attempted to test the hypothesis that as erotic stimuli became more explicit and pornographic, the amount of time subjects would spend looking at them would first increase and then decrease. It was also expected that looking time would be shorter when the slides were viewed in the presence of observers than when they were viewed alone. Forty male subjects saw a series of 15 slides and rated them on a number of dimensions. The subjects could view each slide as long as they liked. Half the subjects viewed the slides alone; the other half were observed by three “graduate students interested in the experiment.” In addition, half the subjects in each group viewed the slides in ascending order of previously rated pornography value, the other half viewed them in random order. As expected, viewing times were significantly shorter in the audience condition. In the alone condition looking times increased as the slides were rated as more pornographic. The failure to obtain the expected curvilinear...

Behavioral Effects of Viewing Pornography

Summary The behavioral effects of exposure to pornography were investigated in this study. Fifty-six male college students looked at slides showing explicit sexual activity. Most of them found the experience moderately sexually arousing, enjoyable, and generally pleasant, but some reported being disgusted, ashamed, and shocked. Self-reports of sexual behavior revealed no increase from the week preceding the viewing of the slides to the week following the exposure. There was, however, a large increase in total sexual outlets the same day the slides were viewed, which disappeared by the next day. Most of the temporary increase was attributed to masturbation. Evidence of delayed arousal reactions and attempts to control arousal while viewing the slides was taken as supporting the argument that highly pornographic stimuli evoke defensive reactions in Ss.