According to a study conducted by the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, the amount of hours spent watching pornography is negatively associated with gray matter volume in the male brain. Of the 64 healthy men between the ages of 21 and 45 who participated in the research, the ones who watched more pornography literally had smaller brains. There was also a negative correlation between hours of porn watched and brain activation during sex cues. That added further evidence to the belief that “intense exposure to pornographic stimuli” can negatively impact visual sexual stimuli’s ability to do the trick, so to speak.
But men shouldn’t start blaming their love of Stoya for not being able to solve theNew York Times crossword puzzle or get turned on with Cialis-guaranteed results. Many, many media outlets have been heralding this study as proof that pornography makes men “stupid” and “damages” their brain. Yet the latest data by no means proves this.
Perhaps it is our puritan ancestry or our long history of pathologizing sexual behavior, especially when it comes to masturbatory habits, but we are quick to assume the worst in studies about pornography. Porn has been accused as the root of a number of ills, from sexism to impotency, generally without the science to actually prove causality. The way we tend to jump on studies that hint at the slightest, most premature proof of pornography’s negative effect is hardly better than the early 20th Century Boy Scout handbooks warning against “self abuse.”
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SOURCE: Emily Shire
The Daily Beast
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