(No) Shame in the Game: The Influence of Pornography Viewing on Attitudes Toward Transgender People

Abstract

The current study employs an online survey of viewers of pornography featuring transgender performers (N = 250) to investigate the relationship between pornography consumption and attitudes toward transgender people. Results demonstrated a statistically significant but substantively weak association between greater pornography viewing and more positive attitudes toward transgender people. Additionally, results demonstrated that viewers’ experience of shame about their sexual attractions to transgender people did not moderate the relationship between porn viewing and attitudes. However, analysis revealed an unhypothesized direct influence of sexual shame on attitudes toward transgender people such that higher levels of shame were associated with greater prejudice. Results are discussed in the context of sexual scripting and the revived porn debates. Further longitudinal research focusing on how the feelings viewers have about the pornography they view impacts erotic media’s effects is encouraged.

Keywords:

• Media Effects
• Pornography
• Prejudice
• Survey
• Transgender

Notes

[1] Transgender participants were excluded to prevent the blurring of effects on (a) attitudes toward transgender people, and (b) transgender individuals’ self-concept in the analysis of results.

[2] In addition to Cronbach’s alpha, reliabilities were assessed via hierarchical omega (ωh), which offers a more robust assessment of scale reliability and internal consistency (Peters, 2014).

[3] Multicollinearity diagnostics (tolerance scores > .89, VIF scores < 1.20) indicated that multicollinearity did not influence the results of the regression reported in Table 1.