Abstract
Pornography has become an increasingly salient topic in public discourse. We sought to better understand the role of religiosity in shaping people’s support of policy stances against pornography, in the form of censorship, using nationally representative data from the 2014 General Social Survey (n = 1676). Results from logistic regression indicate that high religiosity significantly increases odds of supporting censorship. Holding control variables at their sample means, the least religious persons had a predicted probability of 0.09 of supporting censorship, compared to 0.57 for the most religious respondents. We discuss these findings within the context of the current public health debate.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.References
Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswick, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. New York: Harper.
Altemeyer, B. (1981). Right-wing authoritarianism. Winnipeg, MB: University of Manitoba Press.
Ark. H. Res. 1042 (2017). Recognizing and finding that the proliferation and accessibility of pornography has created a public health crisis leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms, 2017 Regular Session (2017). Retrieved from http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2017/2017R/Bills/HR1042.pdf.
Carnes, P. (1983). Out of the shadows: Understanding sexual addiction. Minneapolis, MN: Compcare.
Carroll, J. (2015, January 16). Fight the New Drug addresses pornography at Provo school. The Daily Herald. Retrieved from http://www.heraldextra.com.
Carroll, J. S., Padilla-Walker, L. M., Nelson, L. J., Olson, C., Barry, C. M., & Madsen, S. D. (2008). Generation XXX: Pornography acceptance and use among emerging adults. Journal of Adolescent Research, 23, 6–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558407306348.
Cattell, R. B. (1966). The scree test for the number of factors. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1, 245–276. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr0102_10.
Clarkson, J., & Kopaczewski, S. (2013). Pornography addiction and the medicalization of free speech. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 37, 128–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859913482330.
Cooper, A. (1998). Sexuality and the Internet: Surfing into the new millennium. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 1, 187–193. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.1998.1.187.
Cowan, G. (1992). Feminist attitudes toward pornography control. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 16, 165–177. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1992.tb00247.x.
Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Fight the New Drug. (2017). Fight the New Drug: Change the conversation. Retrieved from http://www.fightthenewdrug.org.
Fisher, R. D., Cook, I. J., & Shirkey, E. C. (1994). Correlates of support for censorship of sexual, sexually violent, and violent media. The Journal of Sex Research, 31, 229–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499409551756.
Fisher, W. A., Montgomery-Graham, S., & Kohut, T. (2018). Pornography problems due to moral incongruence. Archives of Sexual Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1291-7.
Fla. H. Res. 157 (2018). A resolution recognizing the public health crisis created by pornography, 2018 Legislative Session (2018). Retrieved from https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/157/BillText/Filed/PDF.
Griffiths, M. D. (2012). Internet sex addiction: A review of empirical research. Addiction Research & Theory, 20, 111–124. https://doi.org/10.3109/16066359.2011.588351.
Grubbs, J. B., Exline, J. J., Pargament, K. I., Hook, J. N., & Carlisle, R. D. (2015). Transgression as addiction: Religiosity and moral disapproval as predictors of perceived addiction to pornography. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44, 125–136. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-013-0257-z.
Grubbs, J. B., Perry, S. L., Wilt, J. A., & Reid, R. C. (2018). Pornography problems due to moral incongruence: An integrative model with a systematic review and meta-analysis. Archives of Sexual Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1248-x.
Gunther, A. C. (1995). Overrating the X-rating: The third-person perception and support for the censorship of pornography. Journal of Communication, 45, 27–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1995.tb00712.x.
Guttman, L. (1954). Some necessary conditions for common-factor analysis. Psychometrika, 19, 149–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02289162.
Halpern, A. L. (2011). The proposed diagnosis of Hypersexual Disorder for inclusion in DSM-5: Unnecessary and harmful. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40, 487–488. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-011-9727-3.
Hecker, L. L., Trepper, T. S., Wetchler, J. L., & Fontaine, K. L. (1995). The influence of therapist values, religiosity and gender in the initial assessment of sexual addiction by family therapists. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 23, 261–272.
Hense, R., & Wright, C. (1992). The development of the Attitudes Toward Censorship Questionnaire. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22, 1666–1675. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1992.tb00968.x.
Herrman, M. S., & Bordner, D. C. (1983). Attitudes toward pornography in a Southern community. Criminology, 21, 349–374. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1983.tb00266.x.
Horn, J. L. (1965). A rationale and test for the number of factors in factor analysis. Psychometrika, 30, 179–185. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02289447.
Kafka, M. (2010). Hypersexual Disorder: A proposed diagnosis for DSM-V. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39, 377–400. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-009-9574-7.
Kaiser, H. F. (1960). The application of electronic computers to factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 141–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316446002000116.
Kan. H. Res. 6016 (2017). A resolution recognizing that pornography is a public health hazard that leads to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms, 2017–2018 Legislative Sessions (2017). Retrieved from http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2017_18/measures/hr6016/.
Kor, A., Fogel, Y. A., Reid, R. C., & Potenza, M. N. (2013). Should hypersexual disorder be classified as an addiction? Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 20, 27–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/10720162.2013.768132.
Kraus, S. W., Krueger, R. B., Briken, P., First, M. B., Stein, D. J., Kaplan, M. S., et al. (2018). Compulsive sexual behaviour disorder in the ICD-11. World Psychiatry, 17, 109–110. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20499.
Lambe, J. L. (2004). Who wants to censor pornography and hate speech? Mass Communication & Society, 7, 279–299. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327825mcs0703_2.
Lefkowitz, E. S., Gillen, M. M., Shearer, C. L., & Boone, T. L. (2004). Religiosity, sexual behaviors, and sexual attitudes during emerging adulthood. Journal of Sex Research, 41, 150–159.
Linz, D., & Malamuth, N. (1993). Pornography. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Little, R. J. A. (1988). A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83, 1198–1202. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1988.10478722.
Lottes, I., Weinberg, M., & Weller, I. (1993). Reactions to pornography on a college campus: For or against? Sex Roles, 29, 69–89. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289997.
Mockabee, S. T., Monson, J. Q., & Grant, J. T. (2001). Measuring religious commitment among Catholic and Protestants: A new approach. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 4, 675–690. https://doi.org/10.1111/0021-8294.00084.
Moser, C. (2011). Hypersexual Disorder: Just more muddled thinking. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40, 227–229. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9690-4.
National Opinion Research Center. (2016). The general social survey. Retrieved from http://gss.norc.org.
National Science Foundation. (2007). An overview of the General Social Survey. Retrieved from https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf0748/nsf0748_3.pdf.
Parker, N. H., Hodson, K., Bennion, K. M., & Hickman, S. (2016, October 2). Op-ed: Utah students need real sex ed, not ‘Fight the New Drug.’ The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.sltrib.com.
Perry, S. L. (2016). From bad to worse? Pornography consumption, spousal religiosity, gender, and marital quality. Sociological Forum, 31, 441–464. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12252.
Pollock, P. H., III. (2012). An SPSS companion in political analysis (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Sage.
Prause, N., Pfaus, J., Blaine, S., Georgiadis, J., Kieffaber, P., Janssen, E., et al. (2016, December 12). Op-ed: Anti-porn school program misrepresents science. The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.sltrib.com.
Price, J., Patterson, R., Regnerus, M., & Walley, J. (2016). How much more XXX is Generation X consuming? Evidence of changing attitudes and behaviors related to pornography since 1973. Journal of Sex Research, 53, 12–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2014.1003773.
Rattazzi, A. M. M., Bobbio, A., & Canova, L. (2007). A short version of the Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) Scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1223–1234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.03.013.
Republican National Committee. (2017). Republican platform: Great American families, education, healthcare, and criminal justice. Retrieved from http://www.gop.com/platform/renewing-american-values/.
Rojas, H., Shah, D. V., & Faber, R. J. (1996). For the good of others: Censorship and the third-person effect. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 8, 163–186. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/8.2.163.
S.D. S. Con. Res. 4 (2017). Recognizing and finding that pornography is a public health crisis leading to abroad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms, 2017 Regular Session (2017). Retrieved from http://sdlegislature.gov/legislative_session/bills/Bill.aspx?Bill=SCR4&Session=2017.
Short, M. B., Kasper, T. E., & Wetterneck, C. T. (2015). The relationship between religiosity and internet pornography use. Journal of Religion and Health, 54, 571–583. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9849-8.
Stack, L. (2016, April 21). Utah’s war on pornography finds skeptics. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com.
Steensland, B., Park, J. Z., Regnerus, M. D., Robinson, L. D., Wilcox, W. B., & Woodberry, R. D. (2000). The measure of American religion: Toward improving the state of the art. Social Forces, 79, 291–318. https://doi.org/10.2307/2675572.
Sümer, Z. (2015). Gender, religiosity, sexual activity, sexual knowledge, and attitudes toward controversial aspects of sexuality. Journal of Religion and Health, 54, 2033–2044. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9831-5.
Tenn. S. J. Res. 35 (2017). A resolution to recognize pornography as a public health hazard leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms, 2017 General Assembly (2017). Retrieved from http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/110/Bill/SJR0035.pdf.
Thompson, M. E., Chaffee, S. H., & Oshagan, H. H. (1990). Regulating pornography: A public dilemma. Journal of Communication, 40, 73–83. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1990.tb02271.x.
Utah S. Con. Res. 9 (2016). Concurrent resolution on the public health crisis, 2016 General Session (2016). Retrieved from https://le.utah.gov/~2016/bills/static/scr009.html.
Va. H. J. Res. 549 (2017). Recognizing pornography as a public health hazard leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms, 2017 Regular Session (2017). Retrieved from https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HJ549.
Velicer, W. F. (1976). Determining the number of components from the matrix of partial correlations. Psychometrika, 41, 321–327. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02293557.
Wakefield, J. C. (2012). The DSM-5’s proposed new categories of sexual disorder: The problem of false positives in sexual diagnosis. Clinical Social Work Journal, 40, 213–223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-011-0353-2.
Wright, P. J. (2013). U.S. males and pornography, 1973–2010: Consumption, predictors, correlates. Journal of Sex Research, 50, 60–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2011.628132.
Zhao, X., & Cai, X. (2008). From self-enhancement to supporting censorship: The third-person effect process in the case of Internet pornography. Mass Communication and Society, 11, 437–462. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205430802071258.
Zouves, N. (2015, October 15). ‘Fight the New Drug’ anti-porn billboards pop up in Bay area. ABC 7 News. Retrieved from http://www.abc7news.com.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Kort Prince for helpful feedback on the methods and analysis sections of this article.
Funding
The authors declare no funding was received for this research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Because this study utilized publicly available secondary data, formal consent was not required nor was institutional review board approval sought after.
Informed Consent
For this manuscript, the authors utilized secondary data from a long-standing, publicly available, nationally representative survey, i.e., the General Social Survey. Because no original data were collected, informed consent was not sought after nor required.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Droubay, B.A., Butters, R.P. & Shafer, K. The Pornography Debate: Religiosity and Support for Censorship. J Relig Health 60, 1652–1667 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-018-0732-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-018-0732-x