Why Do People Watch Porn: Results from PornResearch.Org

Concerned with the everyday uses of pornography and how the people who engage with pornography feel it fits into their lives, our project gathered more than 5000 responses from people who use and engage with pornography—the people whose voices and stories are almost entirely absent from the debates about whether or not pornography should exist. We did this in a way that those people—who are likely to be intensely aware of the way they are talked about, categorized, and belittled—would trust us sufficiently to tell us their stories, their responses, their pleasures, and their preferences. In this article we outline a number of different reasons people view pornography, each of which leads, broadly, to a different orientation to porn, and, from that, connects with how much and with what commitment they engage; what sources they choose; what materials (visuals, scenarios, narratives) they find inter- esting and arousing; and what they feel pornography adds to their lives. Of course, these orientations do not necessarily come separately, and as we look at individuals in detail we will see how these different elements may inter- weave.