Porn May Actually be Kinda Good for You

There are a lot of studies out there that seem a bit contrived, but here's one you're sure to hold on to for at least as long as you can pretend chocolate and booze are health foods.

A new study published in the Sexual Medicine online journal found that, rather than desensitising men to realistic sex, porn can actually enhance their response to it.

Researchers from UCLA and Concordia University researched a group of 280 men and talked to them about their porn and sexual habits. This included the number of hours per week they spent watching porn and the quality of their libido. Nearly half of the men had regular sexual partners and were asked about their erectile function as well.

After the ice-breakers, the men were shown some standard heterosexual porn and reported how aroused they became.

Interestingly enough, many of the men - namely those who watch more porn to begin with - were more turned on by vanilla porn in a lab setting than they were by the presumably kinkier stuff they watch in the comfort of their own homes.

“While one could object that this was expected since they like sex films, the result is important because clinicians often claim that men get desensitized by watching these films,” said study co-author Nicole Prause. "They are responding more strongly to very vanilla erotica than the guys for whom the films are more novel. While this association doesn’t establish a cause, it proves viewing erotica at home is not desensitizing and perhaps even sensitized the men to respond more strongly.”

Additionally, there was no relationship between watching porn and erectile dysfunction. In fact, it was quite the opposite - porn had a catalysing effect for the men's real-world travails.

It's interesting to note that this is the first time the scientific community has actually examined the relationship between a man's porn habit and his erectile function. You can also bet that there'll be more where this came from now that Prause and her team have opened up this can of worms.

Until that happens, it seems like it's probably safe to assume that watching lots of porn probably won't make you any less sexually active than you are otherwise. Of course, porn addiction is a real thing, but fortunately there is treatment for such an issue. Also, none of this even begins to broach porn as a didactic force: like searching Google for medical advice, it's up to you to figure out which tips and tricks to pay attention to.

All of that withstanding, we now see pornography even more clearly as the vessel of creative potential that it is. Use your smut wisely.

Adult Match Maker's recent Under the Covers Sex Survey of over 7,000 Australians found men were more drawn to hardcore sexual fantasies such as porn. 56% of straight males who responded included pornography in their list of sexual fantasies whilst for women the figure was a surprising 44%.

So guys, you may not have to hide your porn collection after all. If you want to find out more about what turns us on check out our Sex Survey infographic.