Age and perceived effects of erotica-pornography: A national sample study

Abstract

In the spring of 1970, a national sample survey of 2486 adults (aged 20–80) was studied to ascertain U.S. public attitudes toward and experience with erotic materials. Twelve items measured whether or not those interviewed believed that looking at or reading sexual materials had certain effects on themselves or others. Initial description of the results revealed a considerable diversity of opinion. This report provides a multistage typology of those item responses, beginning with characterization of items as positive, neutral, or negative in effect. Striking age gradients were observed at each stage in the typology formation. At first glance, these results are hardly surprising, yet introduction of controls for level of education, gender, and reported previous levels of actual exposure to erotica did not appreciably change the age-graded response pattern. The last stage in the typology contained four levels and showed a typical progression with increasing age. Younger age groups tended to attribute solely desirable and/or neutral effects to erotica. Those who expressed neutral and mixed (strongly positive and negative) views were somewhat older. The next age norms about explicit sexual materials took on a perception of no effects or a position of uncertainty. Finally, those who believed that pornography has largely or solely undesirable effects on its consumers were oldest. The replicability of the pattern suggests a specific order in the underlying process of change in values (historical and/or intraindividual).