DUISBURG, Germany — Women are likely to become addicted to online adult content just as much as men, according to new research from Duisburg-Essen University in Germany.
The study, called "Cybersex Addiction in Heterosexual Female Users of Internet Pornography Can Be Explained by Gratification Hypothesis," finds that that men and women who watch porn have the same risks of psychological dependency.
The report was recently published in the scientific journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking.
The research study examined 51 female Internet porn users and 51 females who don't surf for sexual images. Each group comprised straight women under 30.
After the 102 women were shown 100 pornographic pictures, cravings and arousal levels were higher among the Internet porn users than nonusers.
"Results indicated that Internet porn users rated pornographic pictures as more arousing and reported greater craving due to pornographic picture presentation compared with non-Internet porn users," said Dr. Matthias Brand, the professor of psychology who authored the study. "Moreover, craving, sexual arousal rating of pictures, sensitivity to sexual excitation, problematic sexual behavior, and severity of psychological symptoms predicted tendencies toward cybersex addiction in Internet porn users.
"Being in a relationship, number of sexual contacts, satisfaction with sexual contacts, and use of interactive cybersex were not associated with cybersex addiction. These results are in line with those reported for heterosexual males in previous studies."
