A new study claims that people who watch pornography more than once a week were more religious than those who watched it occasionally.
"Recent research suggests that more frequent porn consumption, especially for religious persons, is associated with guilt and embarrassment, potentially diminishing one's interest in religious or spiritual activities while also potentially creating feelings of scrupulosity that may draw individuals away from religious community," the study said.
The study added that these could be the people compensating for guilty feelings with prayer.
For over six-years Samuel Perry analysed data from more than 1,300 Americans to find out how watching porn affected religious belief over time.
“Those who used pornography at the highest frequencies seemed to be more religious in terms of prayer frequency and worship attendance than those who used pornography at more moderate levels,” told author Samuel Perry of the University of Oklahoma to The Independent.
“Specifically, those who viewed pornography weekly or more in 2006 reported praying more often and attending worship services more often by 2012 compared to those who viewed pornography monthly or less earlier on,” he added.
The paper was published in the Journal of Sex Research. The result was that people who didn’t watch porn had less doubt about their faith. In general, people who watched porn few times a month were less religions and it also caused a reduction in how often people prayed or attended a religious institution.
“For religious Americans, pornography use is at odds with their view of sexual morality. This is a huge moral problem for these folks, especially when they're using it rather consistently,” said Dr Perry.
People who watched pornography on a higher lever (once or more a week), Dr Perry found an increase in spirituality and fewer religious doubts than in moderate viewers.
He related most of the theories to the guilt factor. He theorised that some people who watched porn might have turned to religion for repentance, while in some cases he spoke about compulsive behaviour towards religion.
But the result was most likely down to compensatory action, he also highlited that some people have watched so much porn that they no more feel guilty.
“It could be that those who use pornography at the highest frequencies are eventually able to separate religion and porn use in their minds to where it no longer causes a cognitive dissonance. Basically, it could be that pornography use has become something they're so wedded to that it no longer makes them feel guilty and they just do it daily, like brushing their teeth or exercising. This allows them to be very religious while using pornography at the highest frequencies,” he said.
However previous research have claim that people who religious often watch less porn.
“Findings suggest that viewing pornography may lead to declines in some dimensions of religiosity but at more extreme levels may actually stimulate, or at least be conducive to, greater religiosity along other dimensions,” wrote Perry.
Perry stated that his research didn’t conclude that religion causes people to watch more porn, but that real porn followers may find themselves in religious places more often than expected
