Paul J Wright
Biographic Data
| ID | 3770489 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul J Wright |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul J |
| FAMILY NAME | Wright |
| SIGNATURE | WRIGHT P J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Indiana University Bloomington |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1571-3700 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 94 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 480 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 94 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Study Protocol Packages and Threats to Validity
). Media effects scholars are quite cognizant of various research protocol threats to validity, thinking extensively about their selection of measures, methods, and data analysis tactics. They may pay less attention to how the protocol package aspects of their studies could pose validity threats, however. Using a recent study's recruitment and informed consent documents as illustration, this letter describes a specific and serious protocol packag…
Psychometric validation of the Persian versions of the Generic Scale of Phubbing (GSP) and the Generic Scale of Being Phubbed (GSBP)
Personality, Attachment, and Pornography
Since Internet pornography (IP) is widespread and can become problematic for some users, investigating the personality traits which correlate with its consumption is important. Though many studies have been conducted on the relationship between IP, personality traits, and attachment, no meta-analysis has been conducted to synthesize this literature. We aimed to address this gap through a meta-analysis comprising 51 studies with 45,808 individuals…
Adolescents’ Pornography Exposure, Sexually Dominant Behavior, and Partnered Sexual Satisfaction
On Religion, Morals, and Problematic Pornography Use
Prevalence and Demographic Correlates of Rough Sex Behaviors Among Adolescents Ages 14 to 17
Introduction Sexual practices commonly described as “rough sex” (e.g., choking, slapping) have become prevalent among young adults in the U.S. and internationally. Little is known about adolescents’ engagement in such behaviors. Using U.S. population data, we examined the prevalence and demographic correlates of rough sex behaviors among U.S. adolescents ages 14- to 17- years old. Method Data are from a confidential online U.S. nationally represe…
The Disinhibition Threshold Hypothesis, Pornography Exposure, and Condomless Sex
Pornography exposure and condomless sex studies to date have assumed a linear relationship and found only small effect sizes. The present study introduces the Disinhibition Threshold Hypothesis (DTH) in the context of emerging U.S. adults' pornography exposure and engagement in condomless sex. The DTH asserts a curvilinear relationship between exposure to nonnormative, socially unsanctioned, or personally risky behaviors in media and audience eng…
Back to the future
Parent-adolescent communication about sex and adolescent sexting behaviors
The term “sexting” refers to sexually suggestive and/or explicit messages exchanged in one-to-one or one-to-many forms over Internet-enabled devices. According to the multisystem perspective, parent-adolescent communication influences sexual socialization globally and sexting locally. In the present study, a model of the relationships among the breadth of sex topics discussed between parents and adolescent children, comfort in parent-adolescent s…
Impersonal Sex and Pornography
Following the recent exhortations of health communication scholars to continue the study of pornography and its potential impact on health-related behaviors, the present study investigated associations between the frequency of pornography use and six indicators of impersonal sex among a national probability sample of US adults. Impersonal sex has been linked to a variety of important public health outcomes, including STD risk and sexual aggressio…
Adolescents’ Preferences for Mainstream and Paraphilic Pornography and Sexual Health Components
Health communication scholars are becoming increasingly cognizant of the potential health implications of youths' pornography consumption. However, while research on pornography viewing and adolescent health and development has become increasingly common, the possible importance of distinguishing between mainstream and paraphilic consumption and within-and-between person dynamics has been underemphasized. Accordingly, the present study explored r…
Adolescent Pornography Exposure, Condom Use, and the Moderating Role of Parental Sexual Health Communication
Following calls for an increase in replication studies in communication science as well as multiple other disciplines, the present study provides a direct replication of a pragmatically and theoretically important investigation of U.S. adolescents' pornography exposure, parent-adolescent sexual health communication, and condomless sex published in this journal. Parent-adolescent sexual health communication has been suggested as a sexual risk-redu…
Gender Differences in the Association between Pornography Use and Sexual Satisfaction
Sexual satisfaction has been identified by public health experts as essential for sexual health, overall health, and well-being. The first meta-analysis of the association between pornography use and sexual satisfaction found a statistically significant negative correlation among men but not among women (i.e. men who consumed pornography more often were less sexually satisfied, while women's sexual satisfaction was not significantly related to th…
U.S. Males and Pornography
Communication scientists have published pornography research in the communication discipline's central journals for decades. Health communication scholars have become particularly interested in pornography in recent years, given increasing evidence of its likely impact on critical sexual health outcomes. An important resource for scholarship on pornography use is the General Social Survey (GSS). The first major article on pornography use and pote…
Pornography Use, Moral Incongruence, Psychological Distress, and Sexual Satisfaction
Exploring Educational Messages About Sexual Choking
Introduction Sexual choking has become prevalent among young adults, including college students, and poses significant health risks; yet, no evidence-based interventions address it. Using data from a campus-representative survey of college students, we examined participants’ age at first learning about choking and their views about teaching youth about choking and its risks. We also randomized students to one of three groups and tested the feasib…
On Men’s Problematic Pornography Use and Hostile Attitudes Toward Women
More Support for the Dependency-Resentment Hypothesis
Previously in Sexuality & Culture ( S&C ), we published an article titled “On men’s problematic pornography use and hostile attitudes toward women” (Wright and Tokunaga in Sex Cult, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-025-10424-2 ). This article presented our first articulation of the Dependency-Resentment Hypothesis (DRH) of men’s problematic pornography use and hostile attitudes toward women. It also presented analyses of data collected in Gre…
Betting on Digital Attention
Media effects research has exploded across the social and behavioral sciences in recent years. Flagship psychology, sociology, political science, public health, and medical journals now regularly feature media effects scholarship, for example. This scholarly explosion has not included pornography effects research, however, which continues to overwhelmingly appear in specialty journals. This critical essay uses Google Trends data to buttress the a…
The Dependency-Resentment Hypothesis of Men’s Problematic Pornography Use and Hostile Attitudes Toward Women
Prevalence and Demographic Correlates of “Rough Sex” Behaviors
Rough sex behaviors have become prevalent among young adults in the U.S. and internationally. However, little is known about these behaviors at the population level. Using nationally representative survey data of 9029 U.S. adults, we aimed to provide population estimates and demographic correlates of 10 such behaviors: consensual and nonconsensual hair pulling, biting, face slapping, genital slapping, light spanking, hard spanking, choking, punch…
United States Women and Pornography
Pornography, identification, alcohol, and condomless sex
Using national probability data from the 2022 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior, the present study evaluated whether moderators of the association between frequency of pornography exposure and condomless sex are consistent with the sexual script acquisition, activation, application model’s (3AM) suppositions about the facilitating effects of wishful identification and decreased self-regulation and forethought capacity. Consistent with…
Is Adolescents’ Cyber Dating Violence Perpetration Related to Problematic Pornography Use? The Moderating Role of Hostile Sexism
Intimate partner violence is an important public health problem. Cyber dating violence (CDV) is a form of intimate partner violence perpetrated within a dating relationship via new communication technologies. This study investigated the moderating roles of hostile and benevolent sexism in the relationship between problematic pornography use and CDV perpetration. The Cyber Pornography Use Inventory, the Cyber Dating Violence Inventory, and the Amb…
Improving Mental Health Among Communication and Media Scholars
In recent years, multiple studies have called attention to the mental health of scholars across the academy. And yet, the mental health of communication and media scholars specifically has not received the focused attention it deserves. In their recent Journal of Communication article, Thomas Hanitzsch and colleagues begin the process of remedying this omission, providing important data on communication and media scholars’ mental health and its c…
Pornography Consumption and Satisfaction
A classic question in the communication literature is whether pornography consumption affects consumers' satisfaction. The present paper represents the first attempt to address this question via meta-analysis. Fifty studies collectively including more than 50,000 participants from 10 countries were located across the interpersonal domains of sexual and relational satisfaction and the intrapersonal domains of body and self satisfaction. Pornograph…
U.S. Males and Pornography, 1973–2010
Although both storied and extensive, social scientific research on the effects of pornography consumption on males has primarily focused on testing the feminist contention that pornography contributes to sexual aggression against females. Other parties have expressed concern about males' use of pornography, however. "Moralists" (Linz & Malamuth, 1993 ) have argued that pornography promotes a permissive approach to sexual relations. Public health …
Mass Media Effects on Youth Sexual Behavior Assessing the Claim for Causality
Studies of the impact of the mainstream mass media on young people’s sexual behavior have been slow to accumulate despite longstanding evidence of substantial sexual content in the mass media. The sexual media effects landscape has changed substantially in recent years, however, as researchers from numerous disciplines have answered the call to address this important area of sexual socialization scholarship. The purpose of this chapter is to revi…
Pornography and Impersonal Sex
This paper presents meta-analytic findings on pornography consumption and impersonal sexual attitudes and behaviors. Results were based on more than 70 reports spanning over 40 years of research. Data from 13 countries were located, with attitudinal results from more than 45,000 participants and behavioral results from over 60,000 participants. Pornography consumption was associated with an impersonal approach to sex among both men and women; amo…
United States Women and Pornography Through Four Decades
Is Pornography Consumption a Risk Factor for Condomless Sex
This paper presents meta-analytic findings on the association between pornography consumption and condomless sex. Results were based on 45 reports spanning two decades. Data from 18 countries, with a participant total of over 35,000, were located. Higher levels of pornography consumption were associated with an elevated likelihood of engaging in condomless sex. A model-based meta-analysis did not support the viewpoint that the pornography use-con…
Pornography, Alcohol, and Male Sexual Dominance
This study surveyed German heterosexual men's interest and engagement in a variety of dominant behaviors observed in recent analyses of pornography. Interest in watching popular pornographic movies or more frequent consumption of pornography was associated with men's desire to engage in or having already engaged in behaviors such as hair pulling, spanking a partner hard enough to leave a mark, facial ejaculation, confinement, double-penetration (…
More than a dalliance? Pornography consumption and extramarital sex attitudes among married U.S. adults
Extramarital sex is one of the most commonly cited reasons for divorce. U.S. adults who have more positive extramarital sex attitudes are more likely to engage in extramarital sex. Given pornography’s positive portrayal of extramarital sex, several recent studies have explored whether people who consume pornography have a more positive attitude toward extramarital sex. Consistent correlations have been found, but limitations to inference are pose…
Men’s Objectifying Media Consumption, Objectification of Women, and Attitudes Supportive of Violence Against Women
Pornography Consumption and Opposition to Affirmative Action for Women
Despite the persistence of wage gaps and other indicators of discrimination, many Americans oppose affirmative action for women. Our study investigated a potential source of social influence that has often been hypothesized to reduce compassion and sympathy for women: pornography. National panel data were employed. Data were gathered in 2006, 2008, and 2010 from 190 adults ranging in age from 19 to 88 at baseline. Pornography viewing was indexed …
Pornography Consumption and Attitudes Toward Homosexuality
This study utilized national panel data gathered in 2008 (T1) and 2010 (T2) to examine associations between Black and White U.S. adults' pornography consumption and homosexuality attitudes (indexed via moral judgments of homosexuality and attitudes toward same-sex marriage). Pornography consumption at T1 predicted interindividual change in attitudes toward more acceptance of homosexuality at T2 for moral individualists, Whites, and men. Women exp…
Is the Relationship Between Pornography Consumption Frequency and Lower Sexual Satisfaction Curvilinear? Results From England and Germany
Several studies using different methods have found that pornography consumption is associated with lower sexual satisfaction. The language used by media-effects scholars in discussions of this association implies an expectation that lowered satisfaction is primarily due to frequent-but not infrequent-consumption. Actual analyses, however, have assumed linearity. Linear analyses presuppose that for each increase in the frequency of pornography con…
Longitudinal Assessment of the Association Between Pornography Use and Sexual Satisfaction in Adolescence
Pornography has been theorized to affect sexual satisfaction for decades, yet only two prospective studies, both conducted in the Netherlands, have explored this link among adolescents. Given the unprecedented availability of (online) sexually explicit content and the potential importance of its relationship to sexual satisfaction for young people, we have revisited the association between these variables in a less sexually permissive society. Us…
A National Prospective Study of Pornography Consumption and Gendered Attitudes Toward Women
Mental Health Resources for LGBT Collegians
This study content analyzed a randomly selected stratified national sample of 203 four-year United States colleges' counseling center Web sites to assess the degree to which such sites feature information and reference services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) collegians. Results revealed that LGBT-targeted communications were infrequent. For instance, fewer than one third of counseling center Web sites described individual coun…
Overcontrol in Pornography Research
Women's perceptions of their male partners’ pornography consumption and relational, sexual, self, and body satisfaction
Are the relational, sexual, body, and self satisfaction of heterosexual women affected by their partners’ pornography consumption? And if so, how? These questions have been asked of women in smaller-scale, qualitative investigations for some time, and are being asked increasingly in larger-scale, quantitative studies. Mirroring the general trend in the pornography effects literature, early papers tended to anticipate negative effects, while more …
Americans’ Attitudes Toward Premarital Sex and Pornography Consumption
Internet Pornography and U.S. Women's Sexual Behavior
Representative studies on Internet pornography exposure and women's sexual behavior are needed. National data were utilized to explore the association between 1,077 U.S. women's exposure to Internet pornography and number of sexual partners. Internet pornography exposure and number of sexual partners were positively correlated. This association remained after controlling for age, marital status, ethnicity, education, and religiosity. However, the…
Father–Daughter Communication About Sex Moderates the Association Between Exposure to MTV’s 16 and Pregnant/Teen Mom and Female Students’ Pregnancy-Risk Behavior
Show me the data! Empirical support for the “centerfold syndrome”
But Do Porn Sites Get More Traffic than TikTok, OpenAI, and Zoom
In 2013, the Huffington Post (HP) featured a provocative article titled “Porn sites get more visitors each month than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined” (Kleinman, 2013). Given that Amazon, Twit
Pornography and Sociosexual Attitudes and Behaviors in a Nationally Representative Survey
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The General Social Survey (GSS) switched from an in-person interview to a self-administered online survey for its most recent data collection. This modality switch makes it possible to compare sociosexual data gathered using the GSS's last in-person survey (2018) to its first-ever self-administered online survey (2021), an oft suggested format for reducing social desirability bias. This study compared sociosexual dat…
Pornography and Relational Satisfaction
U.S. Adults’ Attitudes toward Gay Individuals’ Civil Liberties, Moral Judgments of Homosexuality, Support for Same-sex Marriage, and Pornography Consumption, Revisited
Approximately a decade ago, Wright and colleagues published three studies probing the nature of the relationship between heterosexual U.S. adults' attitudes toward homosexuality and pornography consumption. Adopting an "effects" perspective (while acknowledging the nonexperimental nature of their data), they reasoned that pornography use could either lead to more antagonistic attitudes (by consumers viewing homosexuality through pornography's len…
Predicting Reaction to a Message of Ministry
This study investigated whether audience characteristics identified as important in the conversion and religious recruitment literature could predict reaction to a Christianity-themed recruitment message. More specific goals involved (a) comparing the impact of potential recruits' dispositional attributes and personal motivations versus their situational availability on the persuasive effect of religious recruitment messages; and (b) rank orderin…
Father-Child Sexual Communication in the United States
Fathers play an important role in the sexual development of their children. One way fathers may influence their children's sexuality is through verbal sexual communication. In recent years there has been an increase in interest in father-child sexual communication and the research base is large enough now that a review of this literature is needed. This study addresses this need by providing an examination, synthesis, and critique of peer-reviewe…
Sexual Socialization Messages in Mainstream Entertainment Mass Media
A Hierarchical Linear Modeling Assessment of Dual-Addiction Status and Change in Sexual Compulsivity over Time
This study examined the association between dual-addiction status and sexual compulsivity over time in a sample of self-identified sexually compulsive males. Hierarchical linear modeling was utilized to address the study's research questions. Dually addicted sexually compulsive males exhibited lower rates of sexual compulsivity than their singularly addicted counterparts initially but displayed less precipitous declines in sexual compulsiveness o…
A Hierarchical Linear Modeling Assessment of Dual-Addiction Status and Change in Sexual Compulsivity Over Time 1
This study examined the association between dual-addiction status and sexual compulsivity over time in a sample of self-identified sexually compulsive males. Hierarchical linear modeling was utilized to address the study's research questions. Dually addicted sexually compulsive males exhibited lower rates of sexual compulsivity than their singularly addicted counterparts initially but displayed less precipitous declines in sexual compulsiveness o…
Mental Health Resources for LGBT Collegians
This study content analyzed a randomly selected stratified national sample of 203 four-year United States colleges' counseling center Web sites to assess the degree to which such sites feature information and reference services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) collegians. Results revealed that LGBT-targeted communications were infrequent. For instance, fewer than one third of counseling center Web sites described individual coun…
Mass Media Effects on Youth Sexual Behavior Assessing the Claim for Causality
Studies of the impact of the mainstream mass media on young people’s sexual behavior have been slow to accumulate despite longstanding evidence of substantial sexual content in the mass media. The sexual media effects landscape has changed substantially in recent years, however, as researchers from numerous disciplines have answered the call to address this important area of sexual socialization scholarship. The purpose of this chapter is to revi…
Show me the data! Empirical support for the “centerfold syndrome”
U.S. Males and Pornography, 1973–2010
Although both storied and extensive, social scientific research on the effects of pornography consumption on males has primarily focused on testing the feminist contention that pornography contributes to sexual aggression against females. Other parties have expressed concern about males' use of pornography, however. "Moralists" (Linz & Malamuth, 1993 ) have argued that pornography promotes a permissive approach to sexual relations. Public health …
Internet pornography exposure and risky sexual behavior among adult males in the United States
A Longitudinal Analysis of US Adults’ Pornography Exposure
Several studies have explored whether pornography exposure is associated with a casual approach to sex. Much of this research, however, has been cross-sectional, has assessed only straightforward exposure–casual sex associations, and has employed convenience samples of adolescents. This study employed nationally representative longitudinal data from the General Social Survey to explore whether casual sex behavior predicted over time change in US …
Predicting the Condom Assertiveness of Collegiate Females in the United States From the Expanded Health Belief Model
Collegiate females in the United States are susceptible to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) due to their propensity for sexual exploration, multiple sexual partnerships, and inconsistent safe-sex practices. Despite the potential for safe-sex communication to contribute to safer sex, little is known about the predictors of this form of sexual communication. Research on condom assertiveness—the unambiguous messaging that sex without a condom …
Father–Daughter Communication About Sex Moderates the Association Between Exposure to MTV’s 16 and Pregnant/Teen Mom and Female Students’ Pregnancy-Risk Behavior
Internet Pornography and U.S. Women's Sexual Behavior
Representative studies on Internet pornography exposure and women's sexual behavior are needed. National data were utilized to explore the association between 1,077 U.S. women's exposure to Internet pornography and number of sexual partners. Internet pornography exposure and number of sexual partners were positively correlated. This association remained after controlling for age, marital status, ethnicity, education, and religiosity. However, the…
Pornography Consumption and Opposition to Affirmative Action for Women
Despite the persistence of wage gaps and other indicators of discrimination, many Americans oppose affirmative action for women. Our study investigated a potential source of social influence that has often been hypothesized to reduce compassion and sympathy for women: pornography. National panel data were employed. Data were gathered in 2006, 2008, and 2010 from 190 adults ranging in age from 19 to 88 at baseline. Pornography viewing was indexed …
United States Women and Pornography Through Four Decades
Pornography Consumption and Attitudes Toward Homosexuality
This study utilized national panel data gathered in 2008 (T1) and 2010 (T2) to examine associations between Black and White U.S. adults' pornography consumption and homosexuality attitudes (indexed via moral judgments of homosexuality and attitudes toward same-sex marriage). Pornography consumption at T1 predicted interindividual change in attitudes toward more acceptance of homosexuality at T2 for moral individualists, Whites, and men. Women exp…
Pornography and the Sexual Socialization of Children
Academics and lay people alike have contended for decades that children view pornography and are affected by this exposure. Pornography studies that actually sample children are a new phenomenon, however. This commentary summarizes what we currently know about children's exposure to pornography and the attitudinal and behavioral correlates of exposure. The author concludes with a call for research on factors that may moderate the effects of expos…
More than a dalliance? Pornography consumption and extramarital sex attitudes among married U.S. adults
Extramarital sex is one of the most commonly cited reasons for divorce. U.S. adults who have more positive extramarital sex attitudes are more likely to engage in extramarital sex. Given pornography’s positive portrayal of extramarital sex, several recent studies have explored whether people who consume pornography have a more positive attitude toward extramarital sex. Consistent correlations have been found, but limitations to inference are pose…
A National Prospective Study of Pornography Consumption and Gendered Attitudes Toward Women
Pornography, Alcohol, and Male Sexual Dominance
This study surveyed German heterosexual men's interest and engagement in a variety of dominant behaviors observed in recent analyses of pornography. Interest in watching popular pornographic movies or more frequent consumption of pornography was associated with men's desire to engage in or having already engaged in behaviors such as hair pulling, spanking a partner hard enough to leave a mark, facial ejaculation, confinement, double-penetration (…
Pornography Consumption and US Adults' Attitudes toward Gay Individuals' Civil Liberties, Moral Judgments of Homosexuality, and Support for Same-Sex Marriage
This study compared views on homosexuality among US adults who varied in their consumption of pornography. Nationally representative cross-sectional data generated by the General Social Survey (GSS) between 2000 and 2012 were employed. Pornography consumers expressed more positive attitudes toward gay individuals' civil liberties, more moral acceptance of homosexuality, and more support for same-sex marriage. Moderation analyses indicated the imp…
U.S. Adults’ Pornography Consumption and Attitudes Toward Adolescents’ Access to Birth Control
Objectives: The conditions under which adolescents should have access to birth control has been debated by U.S. policy makers and health officials for some time. Given the variability and fluidity of law and policy in this area and the high stakes described by advocates for and against access, identifying predictors of electorate opinion is important. Methods: This study utilized national panel data gathered in 2008 (T1) and 2010 (T2) to examine …
Americans’ Attitudes Toward Premarital Sex and Pornography Consumption
A Meta-Analysis of Pornography Consumption and Actual Acts of Sexual Aggression in General Population Studies
Whether pornography consumption is a reliable correlate of sexually aggressive behavior continues to be debated. Meta-analyses of experimental studies have found effects on aggressive behavior and attitudes. That pornography consumption correlates with aggressive attitudes in naturalistic studies has also been found. Yet, no meta-analysis has addressed the question motivating this body of work: Is pornography consumption correlated with committin…
Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology (83 works) · Psychology (79 works) · Gender, Feminism, and Media (72 works) · Pornography (65 works) · Social Psychology (62 works) · Sex work and related issues (47 works) · Developmental psychology (34 works) · Sociology (33 works) · Medicine (32 works) · Sexual behavior (31 works)