Study: Watching porn boosts support for gay marriage

A new study suggests that the more exposure heterosexual men have to pornography, the more likely they are to support same-sex marriage.

The study, conducted by co-authors Paul Wright of Indiana University and Ashley Randall of the University of Arizona, proposes that exposure to pornography helps open the minds of straight males — particularly less-educated straight males — making them more likely to accept the idea of “non-traditional sexual situations,” the Washington Examiner reports.

“Pornography adopts an individualistic, nonjudgmental stance on all kinds of nontraditional sexual behaviors and same-sex marriage attitudes are strongly linked to attitudes about same-sex sex,” Paul Wright, Indiana University assistant professor and co-author of the study, told the Examiner. “If people think individuals should be able to decide for themselves whether to have same-sex sex, they will also think that individuals should be able to decide for themselves whether to get married to a partner of the same-sex.

“Since a portion of individuals’ sexual attitudes come from the media they consume, it makes sense that pornography viewers would have more positive attitudes towards same-sex marriage,” he added.

Pornography consumption did predict “over-time increases” in support for gay marriage, the team found.

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