How are pornography and sexual sensation seeking related?

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. LAY SUMMARY In this paper, we sought to understand whether pornography consumption causes changes in sexual sensation seeking (SSS) or whether higher SSS causes changes in pornography consumption. Although we found no evidence of the latter, we did find evidence to infer that pornography consumption may lead to lower levels of SSS.