Predicting Internet Pornography Use and Arousal: The Role of Individual Difference Variables‪.‬

Several recent scholarly examinations of the Internet's potential to entice people to consume pornography have been undertaken (e.g., Barak & Fisher, 2002; Cooper, 1998). Little scholarly attention has been paid, however, to empirically examining the factors driving peoples' decisions regarding Internet pornography consumption. According to Fisher and Barak (2001), the continued growth in access to Internet pornography, "... challenges sexual science to conceptualize antecedents ... of experience with such content" (p. 312). Although research on the social and psychological impact of various types of sexually explicit content has provided mixed results (for a review, see Gunter, 2002), any such effects are typically a logical consequence of more or less active content choices made by consumers. As a result, consideration of those personality characteristics likely to influence choices in pornographic content consumption is an essential step in understanding the impact on users of exposure to such content. Studies finding evidence of a link between certain individual differences and variations in the effects of exposure to pornographic content (e.g., Barak, Fisher, Belfry, & Lashambe, 1999; Shim, Lee, & Paul, 2007) further underscore the importance of this line of research. The focus of this study is twofold. First, a factor analytic methodology is used to organize various genres of online pornographic content into empirically derived groupings. The roles of several theoretically relevant individual difference variables (IDVs) in predicting use of and arousal in response to these groupings are then considered. The significance of this study lies in the opportunities it provides for understanding people's patterns of online pornography use, as well as why some individuals may be more or less likely to use and find these materials arousing. Both offer researchers and clinicians an opportunity for improved insight in a number of areas related to sexual health and behavior. These include, but are not limited to, pornography addiction, various forms of sexual dysfunction, gender relations, and the development of inappropriate sexual behavior patterns (see Cooper, Galbreath, & Becker, 2004; Griffiths, 2000).