Is Watching Porn Normal? What the Research Says

Is watching porn normal? Yes, it’s common, and how often someone watches isn’t by itself a sign of a problem. It becomes a concern when you keep failing to cut back and it causes real distress or gets in the way of your life.

If the question comes with a worry attached, the research can help you sort out what’s normal from what’s a problem. Our porn addiction guide covers the bigger picture. This guide covers how common watching is, whether frequency matters, when use stops being normal and what to do next.

Is Watching Porn Normal? At a Glance

Question	Short answer
Is watching porn common?	Yes. About 70% of US adult internet users (1,461 of 2,075) had watched porn at some point, and just over half had watched in the past year (Grubbs, Kraus & Perry, 2019).
Do women watch porn too?	Many do. In a 2014 US survey, 16% of women aged 18 to 39 intentionally viewed porn in a given week, compared with 46% of men (Regnerus et al., 2016).
Does how often you watch matter?	Not by itself. In three samples, frequent viewers without problems were 3 to 6 times as common as frequent viewers with problems (Bőthe et al., 2020b).
When is it a problem?	When you keep failing to control it and it causes marked distress or impairment. ICD-11 describes that pattern (Kraus et al., 2018).
Does feeling addicted matter?	It can. In samples of 713 adults and 1,215 undergraduates, feeling addicted was linked with distress beyond porn use itself (Grubbs et al., 2015).
Is guilt a sign of a disorder?	Not reliably. Shame and guilt are often felt, but they aren’t reliable signs of an underlying disorder (Kraus et al., 2018).
Is it normal in a relationship?	It depends on the couple. In an open-ended survey of 430 men and women in heterosexual relationships, the most common answer was that porn had no negative impact on the couple (Kohut et al., 2017).

How Common Is Watching Porn?

Most US adult internet users have watched porn at some point, and men are more likely than women to watch in a given week.

In a nationally representative survey of 2,075 US adult internet users, 1,461 had watched porn at some point, about 70%, and 1,056 (just over half) reported some use in the past year. The authors wrote that using porn at a monthly-or-greater frequency “is common among men and not uncommon among women” (Grubbs, Kraus & Perry, 2019).

Men are more likely to watch, but many women do too. In a 2014 US survey of adults aged 18 to 39, 46% of men and 16% of women intentionally viewed porn in a given week. The authors argue that asking about a person’s most recent use is better for estimating how common viewing is, and they report figures that are notably higher than most earlier population estimates (Regnerus et al., 2016).

In an online sample of 1,392 US adults aged 18 to 73, recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk, 91.5% of men and 60.2% of women had used porn in some form in the past month. Because it’s an online panel rather than a representative sample, treat it as a rough picture rather than an exact count (Solano et al., 2020).

The Sexual Medicine Society of North America, a professional society, says on its patient page: “Viewing pornography is common and normal, even though some individuals may feel concerned about the frequency at which they watch porn” (Sexual Medicine Society of North America, n.d.). For more numbers, see how many people watch porn.

Does How Often You Watch Porn Matter?

Not by itself. In three samples, frequent viewers without problems were 3 to 6 times as common as frequent viewers with problems, but in another survey more viewing went with more depression, anxiety and stress.

In three samples totaling 15,161 people, recruited from general websites and a porn site, the study identified three profiles of use: low-frequency viewers without problems (68% to 73%), high-frequency viewers without problems (19% to 29%) and high-frequency viewers with problems (3% to 8%). The authors wrote that frequency “should not be considered as a sufficient or reliable indicator” of problematic use, because the number of people with frequent use and no problems was 3 to 6 times higher than the number with problems (Bőthe et al., 2020b).

How often men watched sat at the edge of the pattern. In an online network analysis of 4,253 men, the central symptoms were salience (porn dominating a person’s thoughts), tolerance (needing more over time), withdrawal and conflict, and how often men watched was the most peripheral one. The authors wrote that targeting the central symptoms “seems to be more effective than focusing on reducing pornography use.” That is their inference from questionnaire answers, not a test of treatments (Bőthe et al., 2020a).

The evidence isn’t all reassuring. In a cross-sectional online survey of 157 college men, more viewing went with more depression, anxiety, stress, social functioning problems and problems related to viewing. When the researchers looked at experiential avoidance, which means trying to escape uncomfortable thoughts and feelings even when the escape causes harm, viewing was tied to anxiety and viewing-related problems only among men with clinical levels of it (Levin et al., 2012). For more on mood, see whether porn is bad for your mental health.

Sexual functioning is part of the picture too. In a community survey of 14,581 people, 4,352 of them women, problematic porn use had a moderate positive link with sexual functioning problems in both men and women. How often people watched had a weak negative link with those problems. The authors said the two should be assessed separately (Bőthe et al., 2021).

ICD-11 guidance says people with high levels of sexual interest and behavior, for example from a high sex drive, who don’t show impaired control and significant distress or impairment “should not be diagnosed” with compulsive sexual behavior disorder (Kraus et al., 2018). For what separates high use from a problem, read how much porn is too much.

When Does Watching Porn Stop Being Normal?

Watching porn becomes a concern when you keep failing to control it and it causes marked distress or impairment. ICD-11 uses that pattern to define compulsive sexual behavior disorder, which only a clinician can diagnose.

ICD-11, the World Health Organization’s classification of diseases, describes compulsive sexual behavior disorder as a persistent pattern of failing to control intense, repetitive sexual urges over an extended period, such as six months or more, that causes marked distress or impairment. The disorder sits among impulse control disorders, not among disorders due to substance use and addictive behaviors. Kraus and colleagues describe the pattern as one or more of these features (Kraus et al., 2018):

• A central focus. Sexual behavior has become a central focus of your life, to the point of neglecting health, personal care or other interests and responsibilities.
• Failed attempts to cut back. You’ve made numerous unsuccessful efforts to control or substantially reduce the behavior.
• Carrying on despite harm. You keep going despite adverse consequences, such as repeated relationship disruption, occupational consequences or a negative impact on your health.
• Little or no satisfaction. You keep going even when you get little or no satisfaction from it.

One caution in the classification matters to many readers. As a 2022 paper comparing diagnostic criteria quotes it, “Distress that is entirely related to moral judgments and disapproval about sexual impulses, urges, or behaviors is not sufficient” to meet the distress requirement (Gola et al., 2022).

DSM-5, the American Psychiatric Association’s manual, did not include the proposed criteria for hypersexual disorder, so porn addiction is not a DSM-5 diagnosis (Kraus, Voon & Potenza, 2016).

How many people struggle? It depends on how it’s measured. In a nationally representative US survey of 2,325 adults aged 18 to 50, run in November 2016 and published in 2018, 8.6% scored at or above a clinical screening cutoff for distress or impairment from difficulty controlling sexual feelings, urges and behaviors. The rate was 10.3% among men and 7.0% among women (Dickenson et al., 2018). In the International Sex Survey, which covered 82,243 people in 42 countries, 3.2% were at risk of problematic porn use on the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale. Estimates ran from 3.2% to 16.6% depending on the measure used, and only 4% to 10% of those at risk had ever sought treatment (Bőthe et al., 2024).

Is It Normal to Feel Guilty About Watching Porn?

Guilt is common, but it isn’t a reliable sign of a disorder. Feeling addicted is a separate question, and in one study it was linked with distress beyond porn use itself.

Feeling guilty about porn is common. Kraus and colleagues note that people often feel shame and guilt about their sexual behavior, but that these feelings “are not reliably indicative of an underlying disorder” (Kraus et al., 2018). If the guilt hits hardest the moment you finish, see why guilt can follow orgasm.

Feeling addicted is a separate question from how much you watch. In samples of 713 adults and 1,215 undergraduates, feeling addicted to porn was linked with psychological distress beyond porn use itself. In a one-year follow-up of 106 people who were part of those samples, feelings of addiction were related to distress a year later, even after accounting for earlier distress and use (Grubbs et al., 2015).

In a nationally representative survey of 2,075 US adult internet users, roughly 11% of men and 3% of women reported some agreement with the statement “I am addicted to pornography.” Across all participants, such feelings were most strongly associated with being male, being younger, being more religious, having greater moral incongruence about porn use and greater use of porn (Grubbs, Kraus & Perry, 2019).

Grubbs and colleagues propose that feelings of addiction may, in many cases, be better understood as moral incongruence, a gap between your beliefs about porn and your behavior. The authors used a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate support for that model (Grubbs, Perry, Wilt & Reid, 2019).

Guilt doesn’t have to decide the question for you. Write down what bothers you most: the amount, how you feel afterward, or a clash with your values. If it’s the values, our guide to pornography and spirituality looks at how porn use relates to faith. If you want to compare feeling addicted with feeling conflicted, the addicted or just conflicted section in our symptoms guide walks through the difference.

Is It Normal to Watch Porn in a Relationship?

It depends on the couple. In one open-ended survey, the most common answer was that porn had no negative impact on the relationship.

In an open-ended survey of 430 men and women in heterosexual relationships where at least one partner used porn, the most common answer was that porn had no negative impact on the couple. Positive impacts, such as improved sexual communication, came up often, while negative ones, such as unrealistic expectations, came up considerably less often. Participants were recruited through social media, newspapers and radio, so they may not represent all couples (Kohut et al., 2017).

Whether it fits your relationship depends on what the two of you agree on, and that’s worth talking through openly. Our guides to porn and relationships and whether watching porn counts as cheating go deeper into the couple research and into agreements.

How Can You Tell if Your Porn Use Is Healthy for You?

Start with control, cost and distress rather than a number. The steps below can help you see your own pattern.

1. Take the 2-minute self-test. Our symptoms guide has one. It’s a screen, not a diagnosis, so use the result to decide whether to talk with someone.

2. Test your control with a short break. Our suggestion: try one or two weeks without porn, and notice how hard it is to stick with and how you feel. In a randomized trial published in 2023, 176 undergraduates who had watched porn at least three times a week over the past four weeks were split into two groups. The 86 told to abstain for seven days showed no evidence of withdrawal-related symptoms, and the 90 who kept watching formed the comparison group. An exploratory analysis found that abstaining changed craving only for people with high problematic-use scores who watched daily, and the authors urged caution with that finding. That trial lasted seven days, so it doesn’t show how a longer break would feel (Fernandez et al., 2023).

3. Count the costs. Look at the past month: your sleep, work, money, time and the people you care about. If porn is taking from any of them, take that seriously.

4. Notice why you watch. Before you open a video, notice what you’re feeling, such as boredom, stress, loneliness or sadness. Our guide to why people watch porn covers the common reasons.

5. Check the fit with your values. Ask whether your viewing matches what you believe. Researchers have linked a gap between beliefs and behavior with feeling addicted to porn, so it can help to notice where the strain is (Grubbs, Kraus & Perry, 2019).

6. Talk to someone. If you can’t cut back, it keeps costing you, or the distress is heavy, a therapist who works with sexual behavior concerns can help. If you decide to stop, our step-by-step plan to quit porn is a place to start.

When to Get Help

See a therapist if you can’t cut back, if porn keeps costing you, or if the distress is heavy. If you have thoughts of harming yourself, get help right away.

A clinician is the right person to make a diagnosis. A therapist who works with sexual behavior concerns can look at control, consequences and distress with you, and help you decide what change looks like for you. If you notice changes in erections or orgasm, a doctor is the right person to ask.

If you’re having thoughts of harming yourself, or your mood is very low, call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US), or your local emergency number (988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, n.d.).

The Bottom Line

• Watching porn is common. In a national US survey, about 70% of adult internet users had watched at some point, and just over half had watched in the past year.
• How often you watch isn’t the test. In three samples, frequent viewers without problems were 3 to 6 times as common as frequent viewers with problems.
• The evidence is mixed. One survey of 157 college men linked more viewing with more depression, anxiety and stress, and in another study feeling addicted was linked with distress beyond porn use itself.
• Guilt deserves attention, not a verdict. Shame and guilt aren’t reliable signs of a disorder, but feeling addicted still deserves a closer look.
• Control, cost and distress are the real test. ICD-11 describes a persistent pattern of failing to control urges that causes marked distress or impairment.

If you want structure while you test a break, the TrueAlly app offers daily check-ins, streaks and analytics to show your own pattern, and its No Nut November challenge starts November 1 if you’d like a month with set rules. It isn’t a porn blocker or a medical treatment.

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Sources

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