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Pornhub drops $25,000 load on scientists to research porn

Pornhub is paying scientists to perform porn research, because the only thing better than watching pornography is watching evidence-based pornography.

Disclaimer: some of the links in this article link directly to Pornhub.com, but only to pages where they explain their programs in more detail, however the URL itself may get you in trouble if you click on them from a work computer. So, you know, click carefully and at your own risk. I also got the creative juices flowing to make as many sex-related puns as possible, so you’re welcome (and I’m sorry). 

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The popular porn site (that I totally visit only to read the articles) has given $25,000 to researchers to study porn to help make it a better experience for the end user. This means that Omri Gillath, a University of Kansas psychology professor, along with collaborators Dr. Ateret Gewirtz-Meydan and doctoral candidate Katie Adams, are the first researchers in the history of history to receive money from a pornography website to research porn.

I don’t know how they’re going to construct their study, but I volunteer in advance to be involved.

The project is part of their Pornhub Sexual Wellness Center Grant, which was created by Pornhub’s philanthropic organization Pornhub Cares.

This isn’t Pornhub’s first foray into collecting data. They’ve published 5 “year in reviews” on their site, detailing how we use their site. Their 2017 report said:

Once again, we did a lot of hosting this year, catering to some 28.5 billion visitors, which turns out to be an average of 81 million people per day! With 24.7 billion searches performed on the site this year, there was clearly a lot to find, as this translates to about 50,000 searches per minute and 800 searches per second. This is also incidentally the same number of hamburgers that McDonalds sells every second, which has nothing to do with us but somehow makes the numbers easier to digest?

In addition to gathering data, they have also worked to make porn more inclusive. Earlier this year, Pornhub optimized their website for visually impaired users. The site also gave a $25,000 scholarship last year to support women in STEM.

Pornhub also plowed Boston a bit last year during a large snowstorm, however there’s some speculation as to how widespread the action was:

True or not, things like this aren’t you’d expect from a site built to help you get your rocks off.

Inverse reported:

With the $25,000 grant, the team will conduct three studies over the next 18 months, investigating the concern that porn is a part of day-to-day life (“For some even more,” Gillath says), but we know nearly nothing about its short- and long-term effects.

Pornhub’s visitor statistics give a sense of how ubiquitous porn has become: According to a 2017 internal report, Pornhub received 28.5 billion visits in a year. That’s a lot of people watching in privacy, at least compared to peep show patrons and nudie mag subscribers of years past.

Research like this makes sense. There’s not much data out there to tell us if watching porn is good or bad for our health. There are many anti-pornography organizations  who claim that pornography is detrimental to our health and society, however their rationale is floppy at best, and doesn’t really stand up to criticism. (Oddly enough, almost all of the anti-porn groups are religious in nature, which I’m sure is just a coincidence.)

 

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Inverse also spoke with the lead researcher for the study, who raised the important point that, for better or worse, many people are getting their sexual education from watching pornography online.

“Some of what Pornhub is trying to do now is making sure that it’s treating seriously its role in society,” he says. “It’s entertainment, sure, it’s a source of arousal, of course. But it’s also an educational source and we need to be serious about that as well.”

For many people, especially youth, sites like Pornhub are taking the place of sex ed. A BMJ Open study in 2014 illustrated this, to (public dismay), by showing that exposure to pornography was causing teen boys to have undue expectations about anal sex from girls.

He went on to point out that porn is not real life, which I’m sure comes to the shock of many sixteen year old boys.

I alluded to it before, but I think a huge part of society’s hang-up with pornography and sex education stems from propaganda created by religious groups. They’ve been successful at reinforcing subsistence-only sex education (which, as I’ve written about before, doesn’t fucking work). They also say ridiculous things like “Men prefer debt free virgins without tattoos.” Additionally, they’ve also shamed millions of people into believing that enjoying kinky things is wrong and weird, which is really unfortunate.

My hypothesis is that the studies Pornhub has commissioned will find that, in general, pornography is a healthy part of most adults’ lives. However as with most things, I have no doubt that there are some who indulge in it too much or compulsively. I expect the study results to confirm the notion of everything in moderation, including moderation.

If you’re interested in hearing two of my good friends talk about porn and interview porn stars, I encourage you to check out the Two Girls One Mic: The Porncast!

You may also enjoy reading: Man arrested after he masturbates, dips butt in church’s holy water

Written by Dan Broadbent

Science Enthusiast. Atheist. Lover of cats.

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