How is online pornography different from paper pornography for men*?
In times past men* would get a subscription for porno magazines and have them delivered to their homes once a month, or people could get videos from a video store. In the present men can access pornography on a phone or tablet or TV any time or anywhere. IS there a difference between the two?
There is an obvious difference, but you might be surprised at the psychological difference!
The obvious differences are easy - one option you get once a month or whenever you go to the video store, and the other option is - pornography is available anytime and anywhere you want it online.
So let's talk about about the psychological difference. With a magazine you flip through it once, or even several times, but after the first time you finish the magazine, you have seen it all, and the thrill you get from looking will never be the same ever again.
Why is that? The main thing going on here is officially but also jokingly called the "Coolidge Effect."
Image credit: WDPhotography (Etsy).
The Coolidge Effect
The Coolidge effect refers to the literal cooling of passions that occurs once copulation has been accomplished. Passions resume if another potential mate is introduced or present, as in herds and flocks.
All it takes is one bull or goat or rooster to fertilize a whole herd/flock.
Graph Credit: rewardfoundation.org
The previous graph shares how one male mouse will take an increasingly longer time to ejaculate when copulating repeatedly with one female.
The same male will take almost the same amount of time to ejaculate when copulating with several different females.
Grace and Calvin Coolidge
Image and story from: featherfoster.wordpress.com
The term, "Coolidge Effect" is a reference to a true story about the back and forth teasing between Grace Coolidge to her husband, President Calvin Coolidge.
Grace noticed while on a farm tour that the single rooster mated 35-40 times per day, and wanted it pointed out to her husband who was on a separate tour.
Later, when her husband had the same tour and heard her teasing comments, he joked back about the rooster mating with a different hen each time.
What does this have to do with paper and online pornography?
Everything!
This is a big part of the reason why men could spend all day looking at pornography online and never lose interest. Because of all the mates! The never-ending supply of mates!!
You may ask, "Why are you talking exclusively about men"?
*Does this only apply to males? Well, good question. The Coolidge effect is specifically about male ejaculation. Is there research on females? After a quick Google search my not so scientific conclusion is: we don't know. Why? Because, once again, data on women seems to have been left out of the research. The question hasn't even been asked!! If you see some I missed, please let me know in the comments.
I am left to wish that I was a research psychologist.
General addiction psychology does apply to women and I am assuming has also been researched on women. More on addiction psychology to come!
Sources:
Gary Wilson, Your Brain on Porn. Pusblished 2014
rewardfoundation.org
Sandra Steiger
,
Ragna Franz
,
Anne-Katrin Eggert
and
Josef K Müller
