• Making Love
• Porn

Why couples should watch porn together

By Sarah Moses on

Do you keep your porn habits a secret from your partner? Why not watch together instead? Research shows it could even be good for your relationship.

Porn can have a bad rep, though findings have been mixed about its impact on relationships. But most research has looked at the consequences of watching porn alone. Yet what happens if partners do it together?

Past research has indeed found a link between partners who enjoy porn together and happy relationships. But that could be because when your relationship is going well, you’re more likely to have fun hanging out anyway, whether or not porn is involved. There was no way of knowing if watching porn with a partner could actually benefit a relationship.

Dedicated & satisfied?

To figure out whether porn-watching for two really can give a relationship a boost, a team of US researchers tracked down about 2,800 men and women for an online study. They presented their findings at the 2016 International Association for Relationship Research (IARR) conference.

At the start of the study, and then once a month for a year, the participants were asked whether they’d watched porn alone or with their partner at some point during the past week. Porn could include movies, magazines, online chat rooms and websites. The participants also reported how dedicated they were to their partner and how satisfied they felt with their relationship.

Duo porn v. solo porn

Sure enough, watching porn with your partner could be good for the two of you, the results showed.

People who did it together felt more dedicated to their partner and are happier in their relationship. This was especially true for women in the study.

But when a partner was into watching porn alone, the results were not exactly positive. Doing so could actually damage a relationship, say the researchers. However, they’re not yet sure whether porn is the cause or simply a symptom of problems already there. Some people might take to solo porn-watching because their relationship isn’t in great shape.

Excitement

Why would watching porn together be good for your relationship, you may ask? Though more studies need to be done, the researchers have a few ideas. For one thing, porn could be a solution of sorts for couples who have less sex than they did when they first started dating. But it might also inject some energy and excitement into their sex lives, which could benefit their relationship.

So… ‘Hey babe, you really have to come and watch some porn with me – it’s good for our relationship!’ A warning: don’t try this at home! Seriously, duo porn watching is only going to work if you’re both equally into the idea – no arm-twisting.


Reference:
Viewing Sexually-Explicit Materials Alone or Together: Longitudinal Associations with Relationship Quality, Amanda Shaw, Ronald Rogge, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA.

Would you watch porn with your partner? Share your thoughts below or on Facebook. If you have questions, visit our forum.