Watching Porn Can Make You Bisexual, According To Study

Watching too much porn can make you swing both ways.

A study released by the pornographic website xHamster revealed in their "Report on Digital Sexuality" that a survey of 11,000 users found that the more porn they consumed, the likelier they were to be bisexual.

While the study did reveal that 22.36% of U.S. porn viewers are bisexual, the overwhelming majority of the consumers (67.77%) are heterosexual. 4.05% identified themselves as gay or lesbian. Turns out porn is so influential that it can alter our preferences. We're not surprised. We have an article on "kinks" like sexual abuse and how pornography has the tendency to influence people's sexual behaviors.

The researchers found that 13.09% of people who watched porn once a week are bisexual. Those who consumed it a few times a week had a 19.73% chance of being bisexual. Once a day would place you among the 23.01%, while addictively watching several times a day puts you among the 27.46% of the website's frequent viewers who are bisexual.

The website's Vice President Alex Hawkins speculates that overconsumption of porn may point to the alteration in sexuality. “We can only provide correlation, not prove causation, but it would seem that watching porn more frequently helps show users what sexuality can be,” he said. “The more porn you watch, the more you may think, ‘Hey, that’s actually somewhat of a turn-on. Maybe I’m not as totally straight, or gay, as I thought.’”

Watching Porn Isn't Worth It

Besides that, chronic porn usage has the potential to motivate people to do things they'd never do: Like paying for sex or porn and engaging in risky, anti-social behaviors. Neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman has also raised concerns on masturbation and pornography, and how it negatively affects healthy sexual interactions and communication. "Masturbation and pornography are potently tapping into the dopamine system and can undermine the very processes of – which I consider healthy processes – of finding a mate, you know, dating, communication, eventually, if it's appropriate, sexual interaction, etc.," he explained.

"It also sounds like it's undermining pair bonding," Dr. Jordan Peterson responded. He asks, "Okay, so here's a question: If you're seeking sexual release through pornography and you go through the whole cycle and you get a prolactin release, do you bond with yourself?"

"The biology explains it as what's left there is a kind of an open loop, a kind of an emptiness, right? Because bonding with the self is a complicated notion," Dr. Huberman responds. "There's a healthy version of that, of course – loving oneself and self-referencing. But in the absence of a real partner there, of a real sexual partner, there's an open loop of neurochemicals, including oxytocin and prolactin. The dopamine goes up during pursuit –anticipation – then peaks and then crashes below baseline after orgasm and ejaculation. So this kind of low that people fear is putting them into an amotivated state."

So, sure, masturbation may give you a quick and easy dopamine release, but is it really worth your mental and physiological state? As they say, "Porn is free because you pay with your soul."

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