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Does Perceiving Explain Believing (and Doing)? Perceived Pornography Realism and Porn-Related Beliefs and Behaviors

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Abstract

Pornography consumption remains a common media behavior despite the ever-increasing proliferation of digital media options. A recent meta-analysis found evidence that higher rates of pornography consumption are associated with heightened perceptions of pornography’s realism, but the potential downstream effects of perceiving pornography as realistic have yet to receive a meta-analytic treatment. The present paper describes our efforts to conduct such a meta-analysis. To our surprise, there was a dearth of literature available. And yet, the extant research base suggests that perceived pornography realism may be associated with a number of sociologically, relationally, and personally impactful sexual beliefs and behaviors. Discussion centers on how interested scholars can move this important line of sexuality and culture research forward in the years to come.

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  1. The search in Google Scholar yielded more than 100,000 records because of its inability to restrict the search to titles and abstracts. We reviewed the records produced by Google Scholar to page 16 (160 records). As we moved further, the results became increasingly irrelevant. Consequently, we ultimately used Google Scholar’s ability to restrict the records to the titles, resulting in 29 records.

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This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Correspondence to Mehdi Akbari.

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Akbari, M., Seydavi, M., Kafshchi, P. et al. Does Perceiving Explain Believing (and Doing)? Perceived Pornography Realism and Porn-Related Beliefs and Behaviors. Sexuality & Culture (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-024-10211-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-024-10211-5

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