Pornography: A Cost

Benefit Analysis

Pornography: A Cost Benefit Analysis

Jarrett Anderson
Economics 2010 Microeconomics
Dennis Wilson

Pornography: A Cost
Benefit Analysis

It comes at a cost
It deepened my lack of self-worth, it destroyed my ability to develop strong
relationships with friends and family, and it deprived me of my ability to function without it I
was told in a personal interview with a recovering pornography addict. I spent a lot of time
seeking it out, and when I wasnt, I just couldnt shake the feelings of shame, or urging cravings
to leave me. I wanted to stop, cause it just wasnt worth it anymore. Everything we participate
in has an opportunity cost. We give up the next best thing we could be doing in order to
participate in an activity or to buy a certain item. Anytime we invest in anything, we sacrifice
something in this world where time ever so slowly slips away from us.
The use of and indulgence in pornography has costs, as does the making of and the
participation in producing of pornographic material. When a user opens up the tab and instantly
finds what he is searching for, what loads on his screen is something that not only effects him,
but also the producer, the actors, and those who interact with the user, namely his family and
friends. These are deep costs (those that were heretofore mentioned from my personal interview
with the recovering addict), so there remains a question: why participate? Despite its detrimental
costs, there must be a reason that men and women over and over return to their google search
bars. What are those reasons?
The undertaking of an analysis of the marginal costs and benefits of pornography
necessitates a definition of pornography. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as movies,
pictures, magazines, etc., that show or describe naked people or sex in a very open and direct
way in order to cause sexual excitement (Pornography. Merriam Webster). The key phrase in
this definition is in order to cause sexual excitement. This has an implication that will help us
understand the reason it is so sought after: it causes sexual excitement. Yet why is the

Pornography: A Cost
Benefit Analysis

opportunity to become aroused sexually an activity that is so widely sought after? The
teenagers response would be it feels good, but there are scientific reasons behind this
pleasure.

What do I get out of it?

Our brains are equipped with mesolimbic reward centers that in essence reward us when
we participate in activities that promote life, or are enjoyable by releasing chemicals into our
brains, chemicals such as dopamine and oxytocin (Watts, Clark, and Donald L. Hilton, 2011).
These chemicals help us enjoy our favorite foods, are the reasons we are happy when playing
sports, or hanging out with people around us. However, as described by the group Fight the New
Drug;
Normally, these chemicals are really handy. They help us feel pleasure
and to bond with other people, and they motivate us to come back to important
activities that make us happy. The problem is, the reward pathway can be
hijacked. The way substances like cocaine and opioids make users feel high is
by triggering the reward pathway to release high levels of dopamine without
making the user do any of the work to earn it. Want to guess what else does
that? Porn. And that surge of dopamine is causing more than just feelings. As it
goes pulsing through the brain, dopamine helps to create new brain pathways
that essentially lead the user back to the behavior that triggered the chemical
release. (Porn Is Like a Drug, 2014).
The biggest benefit of pornography is the release of these chemicals to our brain, and just like
Netflix, it is on-demand. Only a few clicks and a few minutes lie between you and the release of

Pornography: A Cost
Benefit Analysis

your reward chemicals, and this release is pleasurable, and frankly, desirable. We have quick
access and can release these pleasurable chemicals to our brain whenever we want. It is all boils
down to our personal choice, or so it seems.
Secondly, one may argue that a benefit of pornography is the ability to explore your
sexuality in privacy. As Steve Watters quoted from a 1995 Time magazine article about the new
rage of internet porn, You can explore different aspects of your sexuality without exposing
yourself to communicable diseases or public ridicule (Watters, 2000). With the click of a button
one can be exposed to various types of sexual activities that arouse the user, and the user can
discover his or herself sexually, in terms of their likes and dislikes.

What exactly will it cost me?

So if it releases pleasurable chemicals into our brain, we have the option to do it
whenever we want, and we can discover ourselves sexually, what could it possibly cost us? The
reality is, quite a bit. Lets start off with the most basic of costs, Time. To give a good example of
how much pornography was consumed in 2014, Pornhub, one of the largest pornographic sites,
released statistics of the amount of time porn was watched that year, and the results were
staggering. 4,392,486,580 hours were watched, and as they proudly purported Thats 2.5x
longer than Homo Sapiens have been on earth. They also stated that 87,849,731,608 videos
were viewed. Thats 12 videos viewed per person on earth There are 2.4 million visits per hour
and 40 thousand visits per minute and an average of 9 minutes and 20 seconds per user (Drucker,
2016). And this is just one porn site in one year. Collectively this is staggering. Individually it
may not seem like that much but according to a study done by The Florida Baptist witness group
of 2,700 teenagers, 8% of teens encounter and/or seek porn daily. 18% of teens seek porn

Pornography: A Cost
Benefit Analysis

weekly. 17% of teens seek porn monthly. This equates to 43% of teens seeking porn at least
monthly (Roach, 2016). The reality is it costs time, and a lot of it. These are time when you
could be participating in other activities you have chosen to spend your time in pornographic
indulgence.
The next cost is a derivation of one of the benefits heretofore mentioned. The release of
the chemicals in the brain. Although it may cause pleasure at first, it can have some long term
effects. In the moment of watching pornography, the brain processes it as a possible opportunity
to mate, and begins the flow of dopamine to the brain, and while this happens, as the group,
Fight the New Drug explains, unlike healthy sexual relationships that build up over time with an
actual person, porn offers an endless stream of hyper-sexual images that flood the brain with
high levels of dopamine every time the user clicks to a new image (Porn is Addictive, 2014). It
seems to be a positive thing at first, stimulation and pleasure on demand, but the cost is this:
when users begin to look at more pornography, the same images as before wont stimulate the
same response because the brain has acclimated to the overdose of dopamine, and cuts off the
receptors, making it possible to get aroused only by indulging in more and different pornography.
This leads to an addiction, because the brain cant keep up with the levels dopamine
released during stimulation while watching the pornography at other times. Its hard to find
happiness in other activities because of the lack of dopamine release. This leaves a user with a
craving, and a need to indulge once again in the viewing of pornographic material. The cost is
two-fold, your ability to enjoy other parts of your life, and to release normal amounts of
dopamine (Porn is Addictive, 2014).
As porn users continue to view it, it is not only the brain that it affects, but consequently
the heart. Not physically, but in a persons emotional ability to love, and have a natural

Pornography: A Cost
Benefit Analysis

relationship. Studies have shown that porn has affects on the way men view their partners,
girlfriends, and wives (Porn Kills Love, 2014). A real relationship requires two people, who have
feelings, characteristics, personalities, and are their own autonomous individuals. Porn on the
other hand, takes the second person out and replaces them with people on a screen, or a
magazine who the user knows noting about. It dehumanizes them and mentally transforms them
into simply an object used to satisfy their own personal desires. This can be detrimental to real
life relationships, and this is a high price to pay.

References

Pornography: A Cost
Benefit Analysis

Drucker, Ali. "HERE'S EXACTLY HOW MANY HOURS OF PORN PEOPLE WATCHED IN
2015: The Number Is Staggering." Maxim. Maxim Media Inc., 6 Jan. 2016. Web. 05 Aug.
2016.
"Porn Is Addictive." Fight the New Drug. Fight the New Drug, 8 Aug. 2014. Web. 06 Aug. 2016.
"Porn Is Like a Drug." Fight the New Drug. Fight the New Drug, 8 Aug. 2014. Web. 04 Aug.
2016.
"Porn Kills Love." Fight the New Drug. Fight the New Drug, 8 Aug. 2014. Web. 05 Aug. 2016.
"Pornography." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 04 Aug. 2016.
Roach, David. "Study: Monthly Porn Exposure the Norm for Teens." Florida Baptist Witness.
Florida Baptist Witness, 21 Jan. 2016. Web. 05 Aug. 2016.
Watters, Steve. "Pure Intimacy: God's Design for Sex." Pure Intimacy. N.p., 2000. Web. 05 Aug.
2016.
Watts, Clark, and Donald L. Hilton. "Pornography Addiction: A Neuroscience Perspective."
Surgical Neurology International Surg Neurol Int 2.1 (2011): 19. Web. 4 Aug. 2016.