Approach Bias for Erotic Stimuli in Heterosexual Male College Students Who Use Pornography

Authors

• Shane Kraus, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
• Skyler Sklenarik, University of Connecticut
• Marc N. Potenza, Yale University School of Medicine
• Mateusz Gola, University of California San Diego
• Ariel Kor, Israel Center on Addiction
• Robert S. Astur, University of Connecticut

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2019

Publication Title

Journal of Behavioral Addictions

Volume

8

Issue

2

First page number:

234

Last page number:

241

Abstract

Background and Aims: Addicted individuals often demonstrate relatively automatic action tendencies in response to addiction-related stimuli, whereby they approach rather than avoid addictive stimuli. This study assessed whether an approach bias for erotic stimuli exists among heterosexual college-aged males who report using pornography. Methods: We tested 72 male undergraduate students using an approach–avoidance task employing erotic stimuli, during which participants were instructed to push or pull a joystick in response to image orientation. To simulate approach and avoidance movements, pulling the joystick enlarged the image and pushing shrunk the image. Frequency and severity of pornography use was assessed using a Brief Pornography Screener and the Problematic Pornography Use Scale (PPUS). Results: Participants demonstrated a significant approach bias for erotic stimuli as compared to neutral stimuli, and this approach bias significantly correlated with pornography-use measures. Moreover, individuals with problematic pornography use (as classified by the PPUS) showed more than double the approach bias than did non-problematic users. Discussion and Conclusion: `The observation of cognitive biases for erotic stimuli in individuals with problematic pornography use indicate similarities between behavioral and substance addictions.

Keywords

addiction; pornography; approach bias; avoidance; cognitive bias

Disciplines

Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms | Medicine and Health Sciences | Psychiatry and Psychology

File Format

PDF

File Size

351 KB

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Repository Citation

Kraus, S., Sklenarik, S., Potenza, M. N., Gola, M., Kor, A., Astur, R. S. (2019). Approach Bias for Erotic Stimuli in Heterosexual Male College Students Who Use Pornography. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 8(2), 234-241.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1556/2006.8.2019.31