Illustrated by Ly Ngo.
Relationships are full of little white lies. Classic examples include, "Oh, is our waitress cute? I hadn't noticed," and any time you've denied faking an orgasm. And, even though lying is technically wrong, these untruths often come from a place of real love. Often times, we mislead our partners about things we don't consider super important in order to avoid needlessly hurting their feelings. And, you better believe this includes porn habits. According to a new study, however, being honest about pornography is actually essential for a happy relationship.
The findings, which recently appeared in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, were based on the results of online poll of completed by 340 heterosexual women. The participants who said their partners were honest about their porn habits were more satisfied with their relationship and less stressed about porn in general than those who said their partners had deceived them about porn use in the past. The results also revealed that mutual viewing of porn also resulted in less relationship distress.
So, how much porn are we talking, here? Well, that's the inherent problem with the study. Its authors admit that their failure to address frequency and amount of consumption should be addressed in future surveys. But, in light of similar studies that highlight the importance of mutual habits in a relationship (like drinking), it's interesting to see how something like porn (or alcohol) can become a real game-changer.
In case you need a debriefing (pun entirely intended), here's a solid primer in porn for women. And, while we're on the whole white lies thing, we want you to tell us when we've got something in our teeth. (Scientific American)