New Study Says Men Are Not Getting Married Because of Internet Porn

[DonLever]

Interesting study. What do you think?

From the Washington Post:

There could be an unlikely contributor to the decline of marriage in this country. And it's free pornography on the Internet.

A team of researchers, who published their findings in The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Germany, determined that the rise of free Internet pornography is not only correlated with a pronounced decline in percentage of young adult males who are married, but might actually be contributing to the trend.

"The results in this paper suggest that such an association exists, and that it is potentially quite large," the study notes.

The researchers used data from the General Social Survey (GSS), a comprehensive, nationally representative survey, to analyze how 18-to-35 year-old men used the Internet between 2000 and 2004. They focused on how many hours each participant spent on the Internet per week, and how many reported having used the Internet to view pornography in the past 30 days, but also observed other activities, including the use of religious websites.

"We asked ourselves, what is helping determine whether people are married or not?" said Dr. Michael Malcolm, a professor at the University of West Chester, Pennsylvania, and one of the study's authors. "One of those things, we thought, could be the use of pornography."

In order to test the hypothesis, Malcolm adjusted for a number of variables, including age, income, education, religiosity, and employment, all of which have been shown to correlate with marriage. He also adjusted for the possibility marriage has an impact on pornography use, and never the other way around.

He then measured the correlation between pornography use and marriage rates among the more than 1,500 participants studied.

Broadly, higher Internet usage was associated with lower marriage rates. But pornography use in particular was more closely linked to those participants who were not married than any other form of Internet use, including regular use of financial websites, news websites, sports websites, and several others. The opposite, for comparison, was true for religious website use, which was positively correlated with marriage.

The natural reaction might be to dismiss the findings as confirmations of an obviousness: that men who are married tend to look at porn less frequently precisely because they are married. While that might very well be true, and likely helps explain some of the relationship, it doesn't explain all of it.

[McBackup]

I think marriage rates are going down because of changing cultural attitudes towards relationships, not so much because men can look at boobies online for free now.

[FramingDragon]

Marriage is going down because people are far more hesitant towards commitment and compromise when instant gratification exists everywhere for every facet marriage can fulfill, porn being one of them.

[c00kies]

What else are you supposed to do if you're not married?

[kyledude]

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

This has nothing to do with porn and everything to do with the changing nature of relationships. That "study" is BS.

[pianoman13]

Marriage is going down because people are far more hesitant towards commitment and compromise when instant gratification exists everywhere for every facet marriage can fulfill, porn being one of them.

Yup.

[TheXFactor]

Isn't it possible that unmarried men might be less "popular" with women and therefore resort to internet porn for gratification? No offense to any females reading this, but even my parents have been saying that a good percentage of women are looking for more in a man then previous generations. I actually know quite a few men who are seriously lacking in confidence when it comes to asking out a woman on a date.

No date = no girlfriend/wife = no sex = watch porn instead.

[McBackup]

Isn't it possible that unmarried men might be less "popular" with women and therefore resort to internet porn for gratification? No offense to any females reading this, but even my parents have been saying that a good percentage of women are looking for more in a man then previous generations. I actually know quite a few men who are seriously lacking in confidence when it comes to asking out a woman on a date.

No date = no girlfriend/wife = no sex = watch porn instead.

I think most men watch porn regardless of how successful they are with the ladies.

[CanucksFan2323]

Arranged Marriage FtW

[TheXFactor]

I think most men watch porn regardless of how successful they are with the ladies.

Its not about who does and doesn't watch porn. I meant that those who don't have a woman in their life are more likely to watch MORE porn. Simple really, if a man has a girlfriend/wife, then they're more likely to just have sex with them instead of porn.

[McBackup]

Its not about who does and doesn't watch porn. I meant that those who don't have a woman in their life are more likely to watch MORE porn. Simple really, if a man has a girlfriend/wife, then they're more likely to just have sex with them instead of porn.

Okay, but then how does that lead to less marriages?

[c00kies]

Isn't it possible that unmarried men might be less "popular" with women and therefore resort to internet porn for gratification? No offense to any females reading this, but even my parents have been saying that a good percentage of women are looking for more in a man then previous generations. I actually know quite a few men who are seriously lacking in confidence when it comes to asking out a woman on a date.

No date = no girlfriend/wife = no sex = watch porn instead.

I have 100% confidence talking to girls, but 0% confidence that it will lead to a relationship or anything similar. It makes it really easy to talk to girls.

As for higher expectations, I don't know what it was like before, but ~12 percent of the male population is 6'0 and taller, yet a majority of females will only go for this population...add in other factors like race and age and the percentage is decreased further.

That said, weight/figure has been an increased variable for men, with many men favoring thin and busty.

I akin obese women to really short men, in that you can really only date other obese men (in the case for an obese woman) or really short women (in the case of the really short man)...of course these change depending on regions and cultural beliefs (fatter is healthy and being shorter is less stigmatized).

[ChuckNORRIS4Cup]

Some of it is true, but I don't think it's the only/main reason. I think a big reason to why they don't get married or want to get married, is because of one trust problems, but also the rate of divorices are way higher now then they ever used to be. And with those divorices, the majority of men get screwed, and literally lose at least half if not more, and if there are kids involved it's even worse. To many are afraid of losing everything, which I don't blame them.

[Dazzle]

Marriage is going down because people are far more hesitant towards commitment and compromise when instant gratification exists everywhere for every facet marriage can fulfill, porn being one of them.

That or people are career-oriented and that they see marriage as slowing them down. There's plenty of engaged people that just don't go past that.

I don't believe that 'instant gratification' is enough of a reason not to marry. People are doing open relationships more often too, which touch on what you say about commitment.

To my knowledge, much of my contemporaries are walking towards that long-term goal of marriage. It's probably just more delayed.

[McBackup]

I have 100% confidence talking to girls, but 0% confidence that it will lead to a relationship or anything similar. It makes it really easy to talk to girls.

As for higher expectations, I don't know what it was like before, but ~12 percent of the male population is 6'0 and taller, yet a majority of females will only go for this population...add in other factors like race and age and the percentage is decreased further.

That said, weight/figure has been an increased variable for men, with many men favoring thin and busty.

I akin obese women to really short men, in that you can really only date other obese men (in the case for an obese woman) or really short women (in the case of the really short man)...of course these change depending on regions and cultural beliefs (fatter is healthy and being shorter is less stigmatized).

I don't really think the two are comparable.

[Dazzle]

I have 100% confidence talking to girls, but 0% confidence that it will lead to a relationship or anything similar. It makes it really easy to talk to girls.

As for higher expectations, I don't know what it was like before, but ~12 percent of the male population is 6'0 and taller, yet a majority of females will only go for this population...add in other factors like race and age and the percentage is decreased further.

That said, weight/figure has been an increased variable for men, with many men favoring thin and busty.

I akin obese women to really short men, in that you can really only date other obese men (in the case for an obese woman) or really short women (in the case of the really short man)...of course these change depending on regions and cultural beliefs (fatter is healthy and being shorter is less stigmatized).

Add in the Asian factor and you're pretty much screwed in North America. Other parts of the world, you're much more accepted (and/or less stigmatized).

I have Asian friends that strike out badly when they're here, but over in places like S. America/Europe/Asia, they do much much better.

Really tiny girls like taller guys - the ones that you've mentioned.

[TheXFactor]

Okay, but then how does that lead to less marriages?

Correlation, not causation. Watching more porn doesn't lead to less marriages, but rather those who are less likely to get married are also more likely to be unpopular with women. Mind you I don't have stats or evidence for this but it sounds plausible, at least.

Of course this doesn't factor in people who simply don't want to get married and the playboys who just jump from woman to woman without getting into a serious relationship.

[TheXFactor]

Add in the Asian factor and you're pretty much screwed in North America. Other parts of the world, you're much more accepted (and/or less stigmatized).

I have Asian friends that strike out badly when they're here, but over in places like S. America/Europe/Asia, they do much much better.

Really tiny girls like taller guys - the ones that you've mentioned.

Pretty much this. I'm Asian myself and I can clarify that white and black women are almost guaranteed to say "no"... unless the woman's digging for gold you happen to have plenty of it.

[Dazzle]

I don't really think the two are comparable.

To some extent, what he's saying is logical.

Very few relationships, in past and present, both observable and imagined, have involved shorter men with taller women and obese people with much slimmer counterparts, in comparison with what the 'average' relationship involves.

You have titles like 'curvy' that confuse people. There may be lots of men that like curvy women - and some slimmer women preferring 'teddy bear men' - but the differences in shape can't seem to be too extreme. Once the shape of a person, both height and width wise, other factors are more heavily reliant upon (i.e. money, looks, personality, etc).

[DonLever]

Add in the Asian factor and you're pretty much screwed in North America. Other parts of the world, you're much more accepted (and/or less stigmatized).

I have Asian friends that strike out badly when they're here, but over in places like S. America/Europe/Asia, they do much much better.

Really tiny girls like taller guys - the ones that you've mentioned.

I don't really inderstand your post. Asian guys are screwed in North America? In what way?