The Use of Online Pornography as Compensation for Loneliness and Lack of Social Ties Among Israeli Adolescents

Abstract

The Internet provides people with the ability to act anonymously, which may lead them to feel secure and to release them from many of their inhibitions. In many cases, this leads them to participate in cybersex activities and online pornography. This study examined the psychological factors behind young people’s sexual behavior online. Participants comprised 713 Israeli adolescents (383 boys and 330 girls) aged 14 to 18 years. Our results indicated that the impact of loneliness on online sexual activity and frequency of pornography use was dependent on participants’ attachment orientations. Engagement in online sexual activities and use of pornography were high among anxiously attached individuals regardless of the extent of their loneliness. Loneliness was found to increase the use of online sexual activities and pornography, only among secure and anxiously avoidant individuals. Online sexual activity and pornography were also found to be related to offline sexual activity. The results are described and discussed.

Keywords

Sexual behavior attachment mental health well-being anxiety

Introduction

Internet use is a becoming increasingly dominated by children and adolescents, who make up the majority of users (Mesch, 2009). Recent estimates place the number of adolescent Internet users at nine of ten Internet users (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010). When it comes to the use of social networks, young people are clearly in the lead (Amichai-Hamburger & Hayat, 2017) and are frequently trailblazers when it comes to using many of the innovative sites (Cole, 2012). Anonymity, control over physical exposure, and strong feelings of control over the Internet experience are likely to encourage people to explore the Internet (Amichai-Hamburger, 2013; Amichai-Hamburger & Hayat, 2017). The Internet has been shown to be an environment where people attempt to compensate for their social challenges and to recreate themselves (Amichai-Hamburger, Wainapel & Fox, 2002; Amichai-Hamburger, 2008; Amichai-Hamburger, 2017). These factors are also likely to encourage people to explore certain sites online though they would be highly unlikely to enter their equivalents offline. One of the prime examples of such behavior is the visiting of online porn and cybersex websites (Delmonico & Griffin, 2010). This study seeks to determine the more specific psychological factors that affect online pornography use (PU) and online sexual behavior.

The period of adolescence is a transitional stage of development between childhood and adulthood. During this biologically and developmentally vulnerable period, many adolescents engage in sexual behavior (Kourtis, Bulterys, Nesheim, & Lee, 2001). A large U.S. national study has shown that the vast majority of younger adolescents (aged 11–15 years) has not had sexual intercourse but the likelihood increases every year across adolescence (Herbenick et al., 2010). By the time they are 18 to 19 years old, a majority (63%) will have experienced sexual intercourse. Approximately 50% will initially experience intercourse between the ages of 16 and 18 years, and for 15% this will happen before the age of 16 years. The remainder will engage in first intercourse at the age of 19 years or older (e.g., Spriggs & Halpern, 2008). The average age of the first heterosexual intercourse encounter is 16.9 years for boys and 17.4 years for girls (Cavazos-Rehg et al., 2009).

Sexual online behavior ranges from talking with someone online about sex, all the way to having cybersex (Ševčíková, Vazsonyi, Šir ůček, & Konečný, 2013). As opposed to merely watching pornographic materials, cybersex is an online interaction for the purpose of achieving sexual stimulations (Daneback, Cooper, & Månsson, 2005). Pornography refers to sexually overt material that is primarily intended to arouse the viewer’s sexually. It has also been defined as sexually explicit material “that depicts sexual activities in unconcealed ways, often with close-ups of (aroused) genitals and of oral, anal, or vaginal penetration” (Peter & Valkenburg, 2009). In the past, pornography was available but took an effort to access. Now, however, it may be obtained freely and effortlessly. In fact, many people today consider watching porn as a normative behavior (Price, Patterson, Regnerus, & Walley, 2016).

The Internet is replete with websites offering different kinds of pornography. A study conducted in the United States, found that as many as 93% of boys and 62% of girls were exposed to online pornography during adolescence, and that boys were more likely to be exposed at an earlier age (Sabina, Wolak, & Finkelhor, 2008). During their college years, estimates suggest that approximately 60% of men and 35% of women have viewed some form of pornography in the past year (Price et al., 2016).

Despite its prevalence among young people, there is a paucity of research as to the motivations of adolescents to consume pornography. In this study, we propose that the use of online pornography among adolescents is, in part, an act of compensation. Online sex might serve as an alternative to an offline sexual relationship (Ševčíková, Blinka & Daneback, 2018) and in some cases it might complement an existing unsatisfying offline sexual relationship. We suggest that the attachment orientation and the degree of loneliness may explain the particular use of pornography and sexually related behavior online.

Attachment theory

Attachment orientations among adults are shaped during infancy via intimate interactions with caregivers, especially in times of threat and challenge (see Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007a for a detailed account). When caregivers lend support and care and the needs for comfort and security are consistently satisfied, the infant develops a secure bond toward the attachment figure (i.e., attachment security), which is characterized by a positive view of the self as lovable and of others as dependable. Secure people are more social and tend to develop healthy ties with family members, friends, and romantic partners. At times, however, parental support is insufficient and as a result, insecure attachment orientations develop. These are classified along two dimensions, referred to as attachment anxiety and avoidance (Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998; Collins & Allard, 2004). If infants’ needs are not sufficiently met by caregivers and the availability of support and care is uncertain, fear of abandonment is developed alongside an anxiety of being rejected. Individuals with this type of orientation are called anxiously attached and are characterized by a heightened desire for love and affection that is hindered by a high fear of rejection (Smith, Murphy, & Coats, 1999). These people have an unfulfilled hunger for affection regardless of the amount of affection they actually receive (Birnbaum, Reis, Mikulincer, Gillath, & Orpaz, 2006). If the experience of neglect is repeated consistently enough, infants will view others as untrustworthy and undependable. Such people are called avoidantly attached because they do not trust the goodwill of others and prefer to emotionally distance themselves from intimate relationships (Smith et al., 1999). Attachment theory has long been considered as a means to help toward an understanding of user behavior online (Amichai-Hamburger, 2002), since it has been found to relate to many components present online, such as perceived intimacy in different online environments (Cundy, 2015); For example, communication technologies could aid adolescents in the phase of separation and individuation – the process by which they distance themselves from their parents and redefine their sense of self; Skype calls and text messages can maintain sense of closeness and intimacy and reduce anxieties long after young persons have left their parents' home. Attachment theory is also related to more specific online behavior, including sexting. For instance, Weisskirch and Delevi (2011) found that higher attachment anxiety relates to sending more texts that solicit sexual activity, and to overall positive attitudes toward sexting. Recently, Efrati (2018) linked attachment anxiety with higher compulsive sexual behavior and with greater consumption of online pornography.

Our first hypothesis is that insecure attachment (anxiety and avoidance) will be linked to more frequent use of online pornography and sexually related behavior (H1) as compensation for inadequate and unsatisfactory social ties in which needs for warmth, care, and affection are not met. People displaying high levels of attachment anxiety are be expected to watch and participate in larger amounts of pornography and other online sexual activities than people with low levels of attachment anxiety (Maas, Vasilenko, & Willoughby, 2018). This is due to the former group’s unfulfilled hunger to be desired and feel warmth. In other words, we expect a positive relationship between attachment anxiety and consumption of pornography (H1a). People high in avoidance may consume pornography as a compensation for the lack of emotionally satisfying social ties. Therefore, we expect the link between avoidance and PU to be dependent on the perceived social state of the avoidant person—the lonelier the person, the greater the need for PU (H1b). In other words, pornography might serve as a source of socially related escapism. Research on adults has, in fact, shown that—at least for men—PU was positively associated with avoidant and anxious attachment orientations and negatively associated with relationship quality and sexual satisfaction (Szymanski & Stewart-Richardson, 2014; Mark, Vowels & Murray, 2018; Maas et al., 2018). Use of online pornography and sexually related behavior might also be a compensation for loneliness, which is linked in part to adolescents’ attachment orientations (e.g., DiTommaso, Brannen-McNulty, Ross, & Burgess, 2003).

Loneliness

Loneliness is defined as a feeling of being disconnected or alienated from positive relationships with persons, places, or things (Woodward, 1967). During adolescence, young adults begin to seek independence from their parents and to achieve greater intimacy with peers. To do so, they must undergo the important developmental task of balancing and managing these different relationships (Brown, 2004). Failure to carry out this process successfully may lead to loneliness (Amichai-Hamburger & Ben-Artzi, 2003). Loneliness is not caused by excessive Internet use; lonely people use the Internet in an effort to solve their isolated state (Primack et al., 2017). Research has found that a sense of loneliness among adults is linked to Internet pornography usage (Yoder, Virden, & Amin, 2005; Butler, Pereyra, Draper, Leonhardt, & Skinner, 2018) and cybersex (Dryer, & Lijtmaer, 2007). Our second hypothesis was that loneliness would be linked with more frequent use of online pornography and sexually related behavior among adolescents as a compensation for their isolated state (H2). We proposed, however, that this link would be dependent on the person’s attachment style (i.e., that loneliness and attachment styles interact). As we noted, people high in attachment anxiety should consume pornography regardless of their social state (lonely or not) because their desire for intimacy is seldom satisfied. Loneliness would, therefore, be linked with higher consumption of pornography for people low in anxiety rather than for people high in anxiety (H2a). In addition, we predicted that for people high in avoidance, loneliness would be linked with higher consumption of pornography (H2b). For people low in avoidance, loneliness may not be a dominant factor.

To examine these hypotheses, we conducted an online survey among more than 700 adolescents, who were asked to report on their online PU, sexually related online activity, attachment orientations, and loneliness. To explore the link between online and offline sexual behavior among adolescents, they were also asked to report on their offline sexual behavior. Their gender, age, degree of religiosity (secular and religious), and perceived socioeconomic status (below average, average, and above average) were also requested since we thought those factors might affect the pattern of associations between the main measures in this study.

Method

Participants

The study population comprised 713 adolescents (383 boys and 330 girls), age 14 to 18 years (M = 16.71, SD = 1.17), all enrolled in the ninth (n = 40, 5.6%), tenth (n = 183, 25.7%), eleventh (n = 211, 29.6%), and twelfth (n = 269, 37.7%) grades. Most (93.4%) were native Israelis. Socioeconomically, 5.4% reported being lower than average, 60% average, and 34.1% above average. All adolescents had access to the Internet (the specific means of access was not assessed).

Procedure

The study was presented as a research project on sexuality among 14- to 18-year-old adolescents. The participants constituted a convenience sample. They were recruited from a variety of sources (postings on bulletin boards and in online forums). Questionnaires were uploaded to Qualtrics—an online platform for questionnaires—and distributed by a number of research assistants. Parents of adolescents who agreed to participate in the study were contacted via email and/or phone and were asked to review the questionnaires and sign an informed parental consent form, which was sent back to the research assistants by email. Upon agreement, a link for the online survey was sent to the adolescent who was assured as to the anonymity of the survey. Participants were then asked to complete the survey in private, in a quiet room in their home (i.e., without the presence of others). Following an informed consent form, questionnaires were presented in random order (frequency of PU, sexually related online activities (SROA), an experience of close relationships scale, assessed attachment orientations, offline sexual behaviors, and loneliness). Finally, an online debriefing was given and participants were thanked for their participation. The procedure was approved by the Interdisciplinary Center's institutional review board.

Measures

Frequency of PU

Frequency of PU was measured as the declared average number of minutes per week spent at PU during the past month. Participants were asked about watching online pornography (1: never, 2: once or twice a month, 3: once or twice a week, and 4: once or twice a day); those who reported PU were asked to list the number of minutes they spend each week doing so.

Offline sexual behaviors

Offline sexual behaviors (adapted from Ševčíková et al., 2013) were measured by four dichotomous items (0: no and 1: yes) asking adolescents whether they had ever (a) intimately kissed, (b) petted or caressed someone’s intimate body parts, (c) had oral sex, or (d) had intercourse. Due to space constraints in the questionnaire, necking was omitted. After computing scores from all the items, adolescents who had engaged in any of these behaviors were coded 1, while those who had not were coded 0 (e.g., see Ševčíková et al., 2013).

Sexually related online activities

Respondents were asked whether they had ever engaged in any of the following nine behaviors (yes or no): talked about sex with somebody known to them, talked about sex with somebody unknown to them, discussed their own sexual experiences with somebody known to them, discussed their own sexual experience with somebody unknown to them, discussed somebody’s sexual experiences with somebody known to them, discussed somebody’s sexual experience with somebody unknown to them, received erotic photos from somebody, sent their own erotic photos to somebody, and had “sex on the Internet.” For each participant, the number of SROA (Ševčíková et al., 2013) was counted (i.e., number of “yes” answers), such that the scores ranged from 0 (i.e., no SROA) to 9 (nine sexually related activities). The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test for assessing normality indicated that the measure was significantly skewed. In other words, the SROA score is a count-type measure with non-normal distribution. A higher score indicated more online experiences for sexual purposes. To account for skewness, we used a specifically tailored analysis (see Results section).

Loneliness

Participants completed the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale—Version 3 (D. Russell, Peplau, & Cutrona, 1980; D. W. Russell, 1996). This 20-item self-rated instrument measures one’s feelings of loneliness and social isolation. Participants are asked to indicate how often they feel the ways described in a series of statements (e.g., “There is no one I can turn to,” “I feel isolated from others”). The measure has high internal consistency (.89). For each participant, we computed a loneliness score by summing his or her answers. Higher scores indicate greater subjective feelings of loneliness.

Assessment of Attachment orientations using the Experiences in Close Relationships scale

The Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR; Brennan et al., 1998; Mikulincer & Florian, 2000) scale is a 36-item measure assessing the two major dimensions of adult attachment styles: attachment anxiety (e.g., “I worry a lot about my relationships”) and attachment avoidance (e.g., “I don’t feel comfortable opening up to other people”). Participants rated the degree to which each item was descriptive of their feelings in close relationships on a 7-point scale (1: not at all and 7: very much). In the current sample, Cronbach’s alphas were high for the 18 anxiety items (.91) and the 18 avoidance items (.83). Therefore, we computed two scores (anxiety and avoidance) by averaging items on each subscale.

Results

Descriptive statistics

Pearson correlations between main study measures—frequency of PU, SROA, loneliness, and attachment anxiety and avoidance—are presented in Table 1. Eta correlations are presented between offline sexual experience (1: had experience and 0: no experience). All analyses were performed with SPSS v.24.

Table 1.

Pearson correlation coefficients between main study measures followed by means and standard deviations.

		1	2	3	4	5
1	Offline sexual experience	–
2	Frequency of pornography use	.30***	–
3	Sexually related online activities	.47***	.41***	–
4	Loneliness	.04	.16***	.15***	–
5	Attachment anxiety	.15**	.09*	.14***	.49***	–
6	Attachment avoidance	.01	.13**	.08*	.62***	.24***	–
	Mean	50.5%	1.91	1.64	33.86	3.34	3.37
	Standard deviation	50.5%	1.05	2.25	10.21	1.24	0.96

Note: Percentages of offline sexual experience relate to the prevalence of participants who had offline sexual experience.

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Overall, 50.5% reported having had offline sexual experience, whereas 51.3% reported having online sexual experience. The analyses also indicated that participants who had offline sexual experience showed higher prevalence of PU and participated in more SROA. These respondents also scored higher on attachment anxiety than did participants without offline sexual experience. The analyses also revealed that the higher the prevalence of PU, the higher the prevalence of SROA, and the higher the loneliness and insecure attachment orientations (anxiety and/or avoidance). Finally, higher levels of loneliness were linked with higher scores on insecure attachment, which were significantly and positively related to each other. It is important to note that the associations found between sexual behavior (offline and online) and attachment styles and/or loneliness were weak. Regarding gender and religiosity, the sample comprised 52.1% boys and 53.9% religious individuals.

Predicting PU and SROA by loneliness, insecure attachment, and offline sexual experience and their interactions

In order to examine participants’ frequency of PU and SROA through the lens of loneliness, insecure attachment, and offline sexual experience and their interactions, regression analyses were performed. Linear regression analysis was employed to predict frequency of PU, whereas negative binominal regression analysis was used to predict SROA. The latter analysis was conducted to account for the fact that the SROA measure is a count-type measure and its distribution is positively skewed. Predictors were loneliness, insecure attachment (anxiety and avoidance), and offline sexual experience (−0.5 = no experience and 0.5 = had experience) and their interactions. Participants’ gender (0 = girls and 1 = boys), age, and religiosity (0 = secular and 1 = religious) served as covariates. To avoid multicollinearity and to facilitate an accurate interpretation of the results, the measures of loneliness and insecure attachment were centered around the sample mean. (Tolerance scores indeed indicated that there was no evidence for multicollinearity.) Regression coefficients for each of the steps are presented in Table 2. (Negative binominal regression does not provide standardized scores and so these scores are not reported in the table.) All analyses were performed with SPSS v.24.

Table 2.

Regression coefficients for predicting frequency of pornography use and sexually related online activities.

	Frequency of pornography			Sexually related online activities
	B	SE	β	B	SE
Religiosity	−0.35	0.08	−.15***	−0.39**	0.12
Gender	1.00	0.07	.48***	0.26*	0.11
Age	0.02	0.03	.02	0.04	0.05
Attachment anxiety	0.09	0.04	.08*	0.15*	0.06
Attachment avoidance	0.05	0.04	.04	0.08	0.07
Loneliness	0.03	0.05	.03	0.06	0.08
Offline sexual experience	0.31	0.08	.15***	1.37***	0.12
Anxiety × Loneliness	−0.08	0.03	−.08*	−0.12*	0.05
Avoidance ×Loneliness	0.07	0.03	.08*	0.04	0.05
Offline experience × Loneliness	0.10	0.09	.05	0.18	0.16
Anxiety × Offline experience	−0.11	0.08	−.05	−0.33*	0.12
Avoidance × Offline experience	−0.02	0.08	−.01	−0.17	0.14
Anxiety × Offline experience × Loneliness	0.04	0.07	.02	0.11	0.11
Avoidance × Offline experience × Loneliness	−0.04	0.06	-.02	-0.05	0.09

*p < .05; ** p <.01; *** p < .001.

The analyses indicated that secular adolescents and boys reported a higher prevalence of PU and more SROA than did religious adolescents and girls, respectively. Offline sexual experience significantly predicted the frequency of PU and SROA above and beyond the contribution of religiosity, age, and gender: Adolescents with offline sexual experience reported a higher prevalence of PU and more SROA than adolescents without offline sexual experience (i.e., online sexual experience is not a compensation for adolescents without offline experience).

The analyses also revealed that the effect of loneliness on the frequency of PU and SROA was dependent on attachment anxiety (i.e., significant interactions). To probe the meaning of these interactions, we employed simple slopes tests using Hayes’s (2013) PROCESS (see Figures 1 and 2). We found that among people high on attachment anxiety (one standard deviation above the sample mean), loneliness was not related to the frequency of PU (b = −.04, p = .44) or the number of SROA (b = −.03, p = .79). The level of these activities was high regardless of loneliness. Among people low on attachment anxiety (one standard deviation below the sample mean), however, the higher the loneliness the greater the frequency of PU (b = .10, p = .05) and the number of SROA (b = .14, p = .04).

Figure 1.

The effects of loneliness on frequency of pornography use as a function of attachment anxiety.

Figure 2.

The effects of loneliness on sexually related online activities as a function of attachment anxiety.

The effect of loneliness on the frequency of PU was also dependent on participants’ attachment avoidance (see Figure 3). When a simple slopes test was performed, an opposite pattern emerged among avoidant people. Specifically, among people low on attachment avoidance (one standard deviation below the sample mean), loneliness was not related to the frequency of PU (b = −.04, p = .53) and this frequency was low regardless of loneliness. Among people high on attachment avoidance (one standard deviation above the sample mean), however, the higher the loneliness, the more prevalent the PU (b = .10, p = .04).

Figure 3.

The effects of loneliness on frequency of pornography use as a function of attachment avoidance.

In addition, the analyses indicated that the effect of offline sexual experience on sexually related online experience was dependent on participants’ attachment anxiety (see Figure 4). A simple slopes test indicated that people with offline experience (coded 1) had significantly more sexually related online experiences than people without offline experience (coded 0) but that this difference was stronger for people low on attachment anxiety (b = 2.09, p < .001) than people high on attachment anxiety (b = 1.49, p < .001).

Figure 4.

The effects of offline experience on sexually related online activities as a function of attachment anxiety.

Discussion

The results indicate that participants with offline sexual experience show a higher prevalence of PU and participated in more SROA. This factor was significant above and beyond the contribution of religiosity, age, or gender. This implies that the Internet allows “the rich to get richer,” namely, the young people who are dominant in sexual expression offline use the Internet as another way to express their sexuality (Amichai-Hamburger, Kaplan & Dorpatcheon, 2008; Kraut et al., 2002; Ševčíková et al., 2018).

As we predicted, among people who scored higher on attachment anxiety, the frequency of PU and the number of SROA were high, regardless of the levels of loneliness. Anxiously attached people energetically attempt to achieve closeness, support, affection, and love, but they also lack the confidence that these resources will be provided and are afraid of being rejected by others. Thus, online sexual activity and online pornography may serve as a compensation for anxious adolescents regardless of their actual sensation of loneliness. For adolescents low on anxiety, who have the mental capacity to seek closeness and affection, loneliness proved to be a predictor for online pornography and SROA. In sum, loneliness is a reliable predictor of PU among adolescents but it is not a necessity; high attachment anxiety and the accompanying high fear of rejection might be enough to motivate adolescents to seek warmth and satisfaction in pornography and other online sexual behavior.

The opposite pattern emerged among avoidant people. Specifically, among adolescents low on attachment avoidance, and therefore high on attachment security, the frequency of PU was low regardless of loneliness. This result is in keeping with theory and research showing that secure adolescents have satisfactory social ties and a tendency to seek comfort and love from others (Potard, Courtois, Réveillère, Bréchon & Courtois, 2017). Therefore, they do not seem to use online pornography and other sexually related activity as compensation. Among adolescents high on attachment avoidance, however, the higher the level of loneliness, the more prevalent is the PU. In this case, the results indicate that being just high on attachment avoidance is not enough to affect consumption of pornography without loneliness. These results may stem from the fact that adolescents scoring high on avoidant attachment tend to deny and avoid closeness and interdependence in relationships (Ein‐Dor, Perry‐Paldi, Merrin, Efrati, & Hirschberger, 2018; Mikulincer, & Shaver, 2003; Mikulincer, & Shaver, 2007b). Only if and when the sense of loneliness breaks through their defenses, does the consumption of pornography and sexual behavior online becomes apparent.

One additional interesting result was that the analyses indicated that secular male youths reported a higher prevalence of PU and more SROA than did religious people. This result is in keeping with previous research (Baltazar, Helm, McBride, Hopkins, & Stevens, 2010; MacInnis & Hodson, 2016) and with research regarding the relationship between religiosity and offline sexual behavior. For example, teens with higher levels of religiosity tend to delay sexual involvement for a longer time than those with lower levels of religiosity (Hardy & Raffaelli, 2003).

In this study, 51.3% of the sample reported being sexually active online. The prevalence of intentional and/or unintentional exposure to pornography and other online sexual activities found in the literature varies significantly. For example, whereas some report rates of 7% (Dong, Cao, Cheng, Cui, & Li, 2013; Shek & Ma, 2012), others report rates of up to 71% (Chen, Leung, Chen, & Yang, 2013). Prevalence rates for lifetime exposure to pornography ranged from 25% among Taiwanese adolescents (Cheng, Ma, & Missari, 2014) to 98% among German adolescent boys and 81% among German adolescent girls (Weber, Quiring, & Daschmann, 2012). These differences in rates stem from both methodological differences and cultural differences. The prevalence of SROA in the current sample is in keeping with rates in the United States (52.5% of online exposure to pornography; e.g., Ybarra & Mitchell, 2005).

Although our main premises were supported, the study has several limitations. It is correlational, precluding causal conclusions. In other words, it is unclear whether loneliness and insecure attachment are the cause of online PU. Longitudinal studies might be needed to further explore the bidirectional associations over time between loneliness, insecure attachment, and online PU. In addition, although religiosity served as a factor in our analyses, most of our sample was composed of religious adolescents. Future studies might benefit from replicating our results among samples that feature secular adolescents more prominently. Finally, we did not assess the means by which adolescents accessed the Internet (i.e., home computer, school computer, smart phone, etc.) and these means might have an effect on the consumption of pornography and other SROA (e.g., adolescents who own a smartphone might have easier access to pornography than those who do not). Future studies ought to take these means into account.

It seems that the ease of availability of sexually explicit materials and the ever-growing opportunities for cybersex is making the topic of young people’s use of pornography and their sexual behavior online, an important area for research because pornography relates to risky sexual behavior and psychopathology. For example, Wright and Randall (2012) have shown that after controlling for demographic and individual difference covariates, Internet pornography consumption was positively associated with having sex with multiple partners, engaging in paid sex, and having had extramarital sex. Mitchell and Sabine (2009) have also linked PU with various psychopathologies such as depression, anger/irritability, and dysfunctional sexual behavior. The need for research takes on additional importance, given that online sexual activity is expected to intensify through integration of virtual reality.

This study shows that online sexual activities serve as a possible compensation for a sense of loneliness among individuals who chronically crave affection and love—those high on attachment anxiety. Our findings echo the words of Elizabeth Kapu'uwailani Lindsey, who noted: “We live in a society bloated with data yet starved for wisdom. We’re connected 24/7, yet anxiety, fear, depression and loneliness is at an all-time high. We must course-correct.”

Footnotes

Article Notes

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