When you think of porn, its power as a tool for social change probably isn’t the first thing that springs to mind. More likely, it’s visions of the “step mom” video you probably jerked off to last night.
But a new study suggests that porn, in all its lubed up, squirtastic glory, is, in fact, changing the devoutly-held beliefs of a certain strata of people: Church-going men.
Researchers from Mt. Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, set out to uncover how, if at all, pornography affects attitudes towards women among men who regularly attend church. Their expectation was that porn would encourage guys to be more sexist and to objectify women. In reality, what they found was almost the opposite — men were more likely to express “egalitarian attitudes” towards women, including their role in the workplace, and in their rights to abortion. And, the more religious services a porn-consumer attended, the stronger their conviction was.
While this might seem to fly in the face of convention, there’s actually reason behind it. And that reason, as the study’s authors suggest, is the theory of cognitive dissonance. The theory describes how humans get stressed out when they hold two opposing beliefs, and thus strive to resolve any conflict between the two. When the conflict is between a belief and a behavior — such as the beliefs espoused in church, versus the behavior of watching porn — it’s typically the belief that changes, not the behavior. And so, church-going porn watchers becoming more egalitarian in their views towards women makes sense.
Conclusion: Porn should be required viewing at Bob Jones University.
A few other things we learned about our bodies today:
- Be stubborn, you’ll live longer.
- But jealousy will kill you in the long run.
- This is how long sex should last, according to women.
- Fentanyl finally may have a use outside of a hospital that isn’t cutting more expensive opioids. Unfortunately that use may be killing death row inmates.
- Our best export to Mexico since signing NAFTA has been obesity.
- Hooray, boners: Over-the-counter Viagra is upon us.
- In today’s “no, duh” news, the World Health Organization has announced what we already knew: Cannabidiol (CBD) isn’t a gateway drug.
Jeff Gross
Jeff Gross is MEL’s senior editor for social media and content marketing. His daily ICYMI column, which chronicles all things meta on the site, is the quickest way to catch up on MEL, and the funniest thing you’ll read all day. Follow him on Twitter.
