In the previous post, I discussed a recently published study by Julie M. Albright regarding the cybersex patterns of a large sample of Americans. In addition to asking respondents about whether they had viewed erotic images and videos online and the effect it had on them, the survey also asked whether they had discussed sexual topics online, whether they met someone in person, and whether they had sought a long-term romantic relationship with someone they met online.
Majorities of both women (55%) and men (58%) in the study reported that they had logged on to a personals site at least once. Slightly lower proportions–43% of women and 46% of men–had actually created a profile with a photo of themselves on such a site. Large proportions of individuals who had never been married (53%) or who were divorced (59%) had created a profile with a photo. Possibly somewhat surprisingly, 27% of married individuals had done so as well. This means that over a quarter of married people had gone online to advertise their attributes to others who are interested in meeting someone for a romantic or sexual relationship.
Moreover, 63% of married people in the survey reported that they had communicated by e-mail with at least one person they met on the personals website. An equal proportion (63%) had actually met at least one individual in person. Taking into account the marital status of individuals, 76% of never-married and 82% of divorced respondents had met at least one cyber partner in person. Furthermore, 36% of married respondents indicated that they had met one cyber partner in person, while approximately 30% had met two or more individuals in person. Women reported e-mailing and meeting more people in person than did men.
You might wonder about the motivations for communicating with people online or meeting them in person. Women and men were not different in terms of reporting that they were just curious or just browsing. Married people were half as likely as those who had never been married to indicate that they were simply curious or were just browsing as the reason for logging on to a personals site. Divorced and never-married individuals reported this reason in about the same higher proportions compared to married individuals. In contrast, never-married individuals were two times more likely to say that they visited these websites to engage in sexual chat than were married or divorced people. So, if they were neither simply curious nor interested in sexual chat in the case of married respondents, what were married people interested in? Both married and divorced people were four times more likely to say they wanted to “date for fun” than were never-married individuals.
What did individuals end up doing as a result of visiting personals websites? Actually, relatively small proportions of the survey participants actually connected with their cyber partners: 17% of women and 11% of men went on a date as a result of their online visits, 15% of women and 14% of men engaged in casual sex with someone they met online, 7% of women and 5% of men had a discreet affair, and 12% of women and 4% of men became involved in a committed relationship.
On a final note, who do you think was more likely to seek a serious romantic relationship by visiting sexually oriented personals sites, single people or divorced people? Believe it or not, married heterosexual individuals were five and a half times as likely to be on the hunt for a serious relationship compared to singles; they were also more likely to go on a date with someone they had met on a sex-related website. Moreover, divorced individuals were three and half times more likely than never-married individuals to want a serious relationship.
What is Albright’s interpretation of this rather surprising finding? “Perhaps people already married or in committed relationships are unhappy and are ‘testing the waters’ to see if an attractive other would respond to them online, allowing them to transition out of the marriage” (p. 184). In other words, people who are unhappy in their marriage may be trying to find a romantic partner to replace their spouse if they decide to leave the marriage, or to give them a substantial reason to finally get out. One point to keep in mind, however, is that the married individuals were probably dissatisfied in the relationship already and, even without the internet, would have been searching for romantic and sexual partners in other ways.
Albright, J. M. (2008). Sex in America online: An exploration of sex, marital status, and sexual identity in Internet sex seeking and its impacts. Journal of Sex Research, 45, 175-186.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Sex in Cyber World
Some of you out there in Cyber World may have a burning question or two about the effect of viewing erotic images and videos online, visiting websites devoted to dating or sexual hookups, or messaging online in an erotic, titillating way with some secret, cyber sex partner. The questions that a number of people seem to have (if I can take a little literary license here) are: Does the internet lead to the horrific, debilitating downfall of many a good woman and man, as well as the devastating ruination of untold numbers of relationships? Or, is Cyber World the great exotic, enchanting hideaway e-resort or lavish luxury virtual cruise where individuals can mingle and cavort electronically, allowing them to meet the men or women of their dreams and live a life of fulfillment and delight that they wouldn’t be able to live without the internet?
Of course, these two questions are phrased in an exaggerated, hyperbolic way, like you might find in some over-the-top sensational popular magazine. Yet, I have heard some individuals refer to the viewing of erotica online and cruising the internet as absolutely and necessarily corrupting and dangerous. Like many extremist viewpoints on various issues, this doomsday perspective is not universally supported by empirical evidence. Nonetheless, even some scientific researchers focus exclusively on the adverse effects of sexually oriented online behaviors, or cybersex.
An article recently published in the Journal of Sex Research by Julie M. Albright provides new information regarding the cybersex patterns of a large group of Americans. It does not address the long-term effects of such experience, but few, if any, studies do. Professor Albright, a sociologist at the University of Southern California, analyzed data obtained by Elle Magazine and MSNBC.com in their Cybersex Survey available at the MSNBC.com website in 2004. Respondents to the survey were recruited by announcements in the Elle Magazine, on Elle.com, and on MSNBC.com. The way that the survey was conducted has both disadvantages and advantages. The downside is that people who participated were those who heard about the study and volunteered on their own; consequently, they selected themselves, rather than being randomly selected by a scientist so that we can have greater confidence that the group is an accurate reflection of the population of people who use the internet for sexual reasons. A tremendous strength of the study is that 15,246 people responded to the survey. However, 75% were men, and we have no way of knowing if that is an accurate proportion for this population.
One important issue that was addressed in this analysis was whether individuals who use the internet for sexual reasons are prone to be compulsive in their sex-seeking behaviors, one of the suspected outcomes of cybersex. Professor Albright found that only 2% of respondents spent more than 11 hours per week in internet sex-seeking behaviors, the amount identified by a previous researcher as excessive. Women were as likely as men to be in this group. The low rate means that it is unlikely that sexually oriented cyber behavior automatically leads to compulsive behavior; in fact, this outcome is very unlikely. Single individuals and gay, lesbian, or bisexual individuals were more likely to spend this extreme number of hours on cybersex compared to married and heterosexual individuals (although, again, the proportions were very small).
In fact, certain proportions of individuals indicate that they experience positive outcomes from their online experiences, although women and men appear to get somewhat different types of benefits. Women reported greater levels of chatting online about sex, possibly creating more of a “relational context,” as Albright calls it, to their internet experiences. In keeping with the relationship focus, women indicated to a slightly greater extent than men that they were more open to trying new situations and behavior as a result of viewing erotica (26% of women, 24% of men), and that it was easier to talk about what they want sexually as a result of their online experience (26% of women, 23% of men). They also were slightly more likely to employ the strategy of viewing erotic images and videos with their partner as a way to heighten sexual arousal for them (19% of women, 16% of men).
Men, in contrast, indicated to a greater extent that they viewed erotic images and videos online (75% did so) than did women (41%). Men were only very slightly more likely to view the erotica alone to increase their own sexual arousal, 16% of men compared to 14% of women. This type of viewing may have involved masturbation.
Participants in the survey also reported on whether they had experienced several negative outcomes. Smaller proportions of individuals indicated that they had experienced negative outcomes than indicated that they had experienced positive outcomes. The greatest proportion was 15% of women reporting that they had felt pressure to engage in sexual behaviors they had seen online; only 2% of men reported feeling this pressure. Slightly more women (12%) indicated that their viewing of erotica had resulted in them engaging in sex with their partner less often compared to men (9%). Although relatively rare overall, somewhat greater proportions of women (9%) felt that their partner was more critical of them as a result of viewing erotica than were men (2%). In contrast, greater proportions of men (9%) reported that they themselves were more critical of their partner as a result of erotica compared to women (2%). Again, the negative effect on views of one’s partner was relatively infrequent.
More will be said in the next blog entry about actually seeking out sexual partners online to meet in person. However, the results of this survey suggest that, with respect to viewing erotic images and videos, larger proportions of both women and men report positive outcomes than negative ones. A compulsive pattern of online sexually oriented behavior is indeed extremely rare.
Albright, J. M. (2008). Sex in America online: An exploration of sex, marital status, and sexual identity in Internet sex seeking and its impacts. Journal of Sex Research, 45, 175-186.
Of course, these two questions are phrased in an exaggerated, hyperbolic way, like you might find in some over-the-top sensational popular magazine. Yet, I have heard some individuals refer to the viewing of erotica online and cruising the internet as absolutely and necessarily corrupting and dangerous. Like many extremist viewpoints on various issues, this doomsday perspective is not universally supported by empirical evidence. Nonetheless, even some scientific researchers focus exclusively on the adverse effects of sexually oriented online behaviors, or cybersex.
An article recently published in the Journal of Sex Research by Julie M. Albright provides new information regarding the cybersex patterns of a large group of Americans. It does not address the long-term effects of such experience, but few, if any, studies do. Professor Albright, a sociologist at the University of Southern California, analyzed data obtained by Elle Magazine and MSNBC.com in their Cybersex Survey available at the MSNBC.com website in 2004. Respondents to the survey were recruited by announcements in the Elle Magazine, on Elle.com, and on MSNBC.com. The way that the survey was conducted has both disadvantages and advantages. The downside is that people who participated were those who heard about the study and volunteered on their own; consequently, they selected themselves, rather than being randomly selected by a scientist so that we can have greater confidence that the group is an accurate reflection of the population of people who use the internet for sexual reasons. A tremendous strength of the study is that 15,246 people responded to the survey. However, 75% were men, and we have no way of knowing if that is an accurate proportion for this population.
One important issue that was addressed in this analysis was whether individuals who use the internet for sexual reasons are prone to be compulsive in their sex-seeking behaviors, one of the suspected outcomes of cybersex. Professor Albright found that only 2% of respondents spent more than 11 hours per week in internet sex-seeking behaviors, the amount identified by a previous researcher as excessive. Women were as likely as men to be in this group. The low rate means that it is unlikely that sexually oriented cyber behavior automatically leads to compulsive behavior; in fact, this outcome is very unlikely. Single individuals and gay, lesbian, or bisexual individuals were more likely to spend this extreme number of hours on cybersex compared to married and heterosexual individuals (although, again, the proportions were very small).
In fact, certain proportions of individuals indicate that they experience positive outcomes from their online experiences, although women and men appear to get somewhat different types of benefits. Women reported greater levels of chatting online about sex, possibly creating more of a “relational context,” as Albright calls it, to their internet experiences. In keeping with the relationship focus, women indicated to a slightly greater extent than men that they were more open to trying new situations and behavior as a result of viewing erotica (26% of women, 24% of men), and that it was easier to talk about what they want sexually as a result of their online experience (26% of women, 23% of men). They also were slightly more likely to employ the strategy of viewing erotic images and videos with their partner as a way to heighten sexual arousal for them (19% of women, 16% of men).
Men, in contrast, indicated to a greater extent that they viewed erotic images and videos online (75% did so) than did women (41%). Men were only very slightly more likely to view the erotica alone to increase their own sexual arousal, 16% of men compared to 14% of women. This type of viewing may have involved masturbation.
Participants in the survey also reported on whether they had experienced several negative outcomes. Smaller proportions of individuals indicated that they had experienced negative outcomes than indicated that they had experienced positive outcomes. The greatest proportion was 15% of women reporting that they had felt pressure to engage in sexual behaviors they had seen online; only 2% of men reported feeling this pressure. Slightly more women (12%) indicated that their viewing of erotica had resulted in them engaging in sex with their partner less often compared to men (9%). Although relatively rare overall, somewhat greater proportions of women (9%) felt that their partner was more critical of them as a result of viewing erotica than were men (2%). In contrast, greater proportions of men (9%) reported that they themselves were more critical of their partner as a result of erotica compared to women (2%). Again, the negative effect on views of one’s partner was relatively infrequent.
More will be said in the next blog entry about actually seeking out sexual partners online to meet in person. However, the results of this survey suggest that, with respect to viewing erotic images and videos, larger proportions of both women and men report positive outcomes than negative ones. A compulsive pattern of online sexually oriented behavior is indeed extremely rare.
Albright, J. M. (2008). Sex in America online: An exploration of sex, marital status, and sexual identity in Internet sex seeking and its impacts. Journal of Sex Research, 45, 175-186.
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