Does porn make you dumb? It will be tempting to dismiss this question as another silly myth that surrounds masturbation and pornography. But you should not dismiss it so fast!
Research has shown that porn affects the neuroplasticity of your brain and shrinks the grey matter responsible for cognitive function. Frequent porn watching is also linked to compulsive behaviors and poorer self-control. We also know that porn can desensitize our dopamine reward paths and interfere with our motivation.
Another key negative effect of porn is on your mental health. Excessive pornography use is linked to higher rates of anxiety, stress, and depression. While mental health issues do not exactly make you dumb, they definitely affect your rational thinking and emotional regulation.
So, when asked the question, does porn make you dumb, you might have to say Yes!
The Relationship Between Porn and Brainpower
Your brain is made of two main types of tissues – white matter and grey matter.
The white matter is found closer to the center of your brain and is responsible for the transfer of information between different areas of the brain and the nervous system. The grey matter is responsible for key cognitive functions, emotions, decision-making, language, and sensory perception. Essentially, grey matter is what gives you brain power.
A study at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin has found that men who watch porn tend to have less grey matter. The study also found that the reward center of the brain shrinks in men who watch porn. There is also another German study that links excessive porn watching can interfere with working memory performance.
The grey matter has been linked to Intelligence. So, the results of these studies are drawing a correlation between porn consumption and brain power. People are interpreting it as the answer to the question, does porn make you dumb?
It is surely tempting to take this study as an authority on the question of does porn make you dumber? But remember that the study has established only correlation, not causation! So, it is entirely possible that the less grey matter and less efficient reward center in the brain is a precondition that makes men vulnerable to pornography.
Another major drawback of the studies is the sample size. The Max Plank study was done on 64 men ages 21 to 45 (and no women.). The German study had a sample size of just 28 people. It is not significant or representative enough to support broad conclusions.
So, we have to wait for further research into the effects of porn on the brain to conclusively answer the question – does porn make you dumb?
Effects of Pornography on Mental Health
Porn has a major negative impact on your mental health. Research has linked pornography use with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, loneliness, and body image issues.
Porn not only causes stress, anxiety, and depression but also worsens all three mental health issues. People often begin to watch porn to escape from anxiety, depression and loneliness. It results in a dangerous cycle where increased porn use leads to more feelings of loneliness and anxiety. The body-image issues resulting from frequent porn watching are linked to low self-esteem.
People who have an excessive porn habit also report lesser satisfaction in real-life relationships. Watching porn frequently can desensitize your brain to natural intimacy and sexual stimuli of partnered sex. This affects the emotional bonding and relationship with your partner. Porn also desensitizes people to sexual violence and promotes aggressive sexual behavior.
Porn can also affect your brain, just like other habit-forming substances such as drugs or alcohol. So, someone with a pornography habit also goes through withdrawal, cravings, and emotional distress.
Also Read: What Does Porn Do to Your Brain? 8 Scary Porn Effects on Brain
Effects of Porn on Mental Clarity
Researchers have found that your working memory and attention can be compromised by excessive porn watching.
Studies have shown that when we compare porn-addicted teenagers with non-addicted individuals, they show a reduction in their verbal memory. Extended exposure to pornographic content is also linked to difficulties in concentration and focus.
Porn a so impairs cognitive function and affects mental processes relating to processing and retaining information. Nicholas Carr is the author of the bestseller – The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. In this book, Carr explores how excessive internet use, including excessive online porn consumption, affects ur deep thinking, concentration, and information retention.
Porn can also cause symptoms similar to brain fog and mental confusion that compromises problem-solving ability, impulse control, and decision-making ability.
Porn’s Effect on Emotional Intelligence
Now, let us find the answer to the question – does porn make you dumber by affecting your emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence is an umbrella term that covers skills such as the ability to recognize, understand, and express emotions and self-regulation.
Researchers have found that excessive porn consumption is correlated with the erosion of the prefrontal cortex. Your brain’s prefrontal cortex regulates key executive functions such as willpower and impulse control. This structure is underdeveloped during childhood – so children can not regulate their emotions and impulses.
Damage to the prefrontal cortex in adulthood makes people behave compulsively and make poor decisions. So, the damage of excessive porn use on the prefrontal cortex can result in more juvenile behavior and poor emotional Intelligence. Essentially, porn is rewiring your brain into a more juvenile state of emotional Intelligence.
An interesting study of Italian adolescents found that youngsters often use pornography as a tool for establishing emotional homeostasis. So, the subjects were using pornography to find relief from difficult emotions rather than sexual arousal. The researchers also found that people with such dependency on porn are less likely to seek other constructive options for their emotional regulation.
Also Read: 9 Best Porn Blockers Apps for Mobile
Does Watching Porn Make You Dumber or Stupid?
Porn’s effect on your dopamine reward system can be a reason why it makes you dumber or stupid.
Dopamine is the chemical associated with pleasure and motivation. When you do an activity like eating, exercise, or sex, your brain releases dopamine. Repeated exposure to dopamine helps your brain build dopamine reward pathways, which create an association between specific activities and the resulting pleasure. These dopamine reward pathways motivate you to seek activities that secrete dopamine.
The dopamine release of natural stimulants such as partnered sex is proportional. But porn is hyper-stimulative by design. So, its effect on dopamine is disproportionately high. When your brain is frequently exposed to dopamine release from porn, it builds the dopamine reward pathways t at motivate you to seek more porn.
Another effect of dopamine overload is that your brain builds a tolerance to it. So, you have to seek more extreme pornographic content to achieve baseline dopamine stimulation. The natural or real-life stimuli can never match the hyper-stimulation of dopamine.
So, over time, you are likely to lose the motivation to seek real-life experiences and new things. Once your brain’s dopamine system is broken, it is unmotivated to learn and evolve. As a consequence, you are likely to become dumber.
Does Masturbating Make You Stupid?
There is no research linking masturbation with your level of Intelligence. So, one can not say conclusively that masturbation makes you stupid. While regulated masturbation might be mo truly harmless, compulsive masturbation habits can affect your psychological and mental health. So, it can impair your decision-making indirectly.
Excessive masturbation is a taboo habit that can cause shame and guilt. These emotions make you vulnerable to mental health issues such as stress, anxiety, and depression. When your mental functioning is impaired by mental health challenges, you are likely to make errors of judgment.
Dopamine is an essential chemical that regulates your motivation and reward-seeking behaviors. Excessive masturbation can also result in frequent secretion of higher levels of dopamine. As a result, your brain’s dopamine reward pathways will be broken. Dopamine depletion affects your motivation to seek and learn new things. Your inability to keep up with the dynamic changes in your environment can make you stupid.
How BlockP can Help you?
When you are trying to quit your pornography habit, the internet will be a scary place. The world wide web is infested by pornography and explicit content. It not only makes porn convenient to access but also continuously exposes you to triggers and temptations. When working or just scrolling through social media, you will be under great stress not to relapse. So, quitting porn becomes extremely hard.
BlockP is the best porn blocker for IOS and Android. BlockP helps you to quit the porn habit by blocking pornographic content on your digital devices. It ensures complete protection from both intentional and accidental exposure to porn online. Features of BlockP are:
- BlockP analyzes the web pages in real time, and it filters out adult websites and restricts adult content.
- The custom filters in BlockP let you filter out specific trigger words, images, URLs, and explicit content on social media.
- It blocks pornographic content in incognito mode and also while using a VPN.
- BlockP provides password protection and uninstall prevention to help you avoid relapses.
- The porn blocker has a productivity mode to block distracting apps and keep you focused.