Abstract

Sexual sensation seeking (SSS) describes an individual’s tendency to seek novel and risky sexual stimulation. In research, SSS has been measured through the Sexual Sensation Seeking scale or by examining relevant behaviors such as unprotected sex, multiple sex partners, and unfamiliar unique sex partners. While we know that pornography use and SSS are correlated, the direction of this association is unclear. Using panel data and Bayesian Multi-level Modeling, we examined the direction of the relationship between these two constructs. Using an MTurk.com sample of 312 participants, we collected data on pornography use and SSS once a month for six months. To measure pornography use, we used a newly validated measure that assesses frequency of use, duration per viewing episode, whether pornography exposure was accidental or intentional, and how much arousal the exposure to pornography produced. To measure SSS, we used the Sexual Sensation Seeking Scale but omitted one item about pornography use to reduce the risk of a spurious finding. We observed that SSS and pornography use correlate at baseline, but their prospective predictive power is weak. These findings suggest that while SSS and pornography use tend to co-occur, we do not observe strong evidence that one causes the other.

摘要

性感觉寻求 (SSS) 描述了个人寻求新奇和冒险性刺激的倾向。在研究中，SSS 是通过性感觉寻求量表或通过检查相关行为来衡量的，例如无保护的性行为、多个性伴侣和不熟悉的独特性伴侣。虽然我们知道色情使用和 SSS 相关，但这种关联的方向尚不清楚。使用面板数据和贝叶斯多级建模，我们检查了这两个结构之间关系的方向。使用 MTurk.com 的 312 名参与者样本，我们在六个月内每月收集一次色情使用和 SSS 的数据。为了衡量色情内容的使用情况，我们使用了一种新验证的方法来评估使用频率、每次观看的持续时间，无论色情内容是偶然还是故意的，以及接触色情内容产生的兴奋程度。为了衡量 SSS，我们使用了性感觉寻求量表，但省略了一项关于色情使用的项目，以降低虚假发现的风险。我们观察到 SSS 和色情使用在基线上相关，但它们的前瞻性预测能力很弱。这些发现表明，虽然 SSS 和色情内容的使用往往同时发生，但我们没有观察到强有力的证据表明其中一个会导致另一个。