A new study shows that visible physical aggression in online pornography has increased significantly over the past 25 years. The most significant increase was observed in cases of slapping, more severe punching and choking, writes The Journal of Sex Research.
The scientific literature examines the relationship between viewing pornography with aggressive content and maintaining attitudes that support aggression. A number of studies have shown that exposure to aggressive pornography is associated with a greater likelihood of sexually aggressive behavior and attitudes. Despite these links, there is considerable debate and variation in findings about how much aggression is actually present in mainstream pornography.
Previous analyses of pornographic content have yielded mixed results about how common aggression is, in part because of the different definitions, time periods, and types of media examined. Most of this research has not included data from the past decade, a period of significant change in online content. The researchers in the current study sought to provide a systematic, longitudinal analysis to understand whether and how depictions of aggression in highly popular online pornographic videos have changed over time.
„I was teaching a course on deviance and came across claims about levels of aggression in sexuality that were either not empirically substantiated or were based on problematic analyses and definitions of aggression. So I decided to do my own research on this issue, especially regarding the common claim that mainstream pornography is getting “harder and harder,” said study author Eran Shore, a professor at McGill University and author of “Aggression in Pornography: Myths and Realities.” “This study is part of a bigger picture that I present in my book.”
To examine these trends, the researchers analyzed a sample of 255 videos from Pornhub, one of the most visited websites worldwide. They selected videos from the “most viewed” category, removing content uploaded between 2000 and 2024 to create a long-term perspective. Each video had at least two million views. This strategy was chosen to focus on content that was most likely to be viewed by a large audience and to maintain a consistent type of video for comparison across years.
The research team used two different operational measures of aggression.
The first, called “visible aggression“, included a predefined list of physical actions such as slapping, hitting, and choking, regardless of whether the performers appeared to consent.
The second definition, “nonconsensual aggression“, applied only when the performers showed clear verbal or nonverbal signs of resistance or distress that were ignored by their partners. The programmers also noted the presence of specific aggressive actions, titles suggesting aggression, and verbal aggression.
Across the 25-year sample, visible physical aggression was present in 43.9% of the videos. Slapping was the most common action, appearing in 39.2% of all videos, followed by hair pulling at 10.2%. In contrast, non-consensual aggression was quite rare, appearing in only 1.6% of the videos analyzed. Titles suggesting aggression were also relatively rare, appearing in about 10% of the sample.
Analysis of trends in the study over time provides evidence of a noticeable change in content. The percentage of visible aggression has nearly tripled, rising from about 20% in videos taken since the early 2000s to about 55-60% in videos from the last decade. This suggests that viewers of popular pornography today are significantly more likely to encounter scenes of physical aggression than they were 15 to 20 years ago.
“Previous studies that covered data up to the mid-2010s did not find a significant increase in most types of aggression,“ Shore told PsyPost. “So the significant increase in this study, which covered data up to the mid-2020s, was not entirely unexpected.“
The researchers report that this increase can largely be explained by a sharp increase in the depiction of butt-slapping. The practice was observed in less than 20% of videos from the 2000s, but appeared in more than half of videos taken from the late 2010s and early 2020s. The authors note that slapping is often considered a milder form of aggression and that its meaning can be subjective, with some viewers not perceiving it as aggressive at all.
While slapping accounted for most of the change, the study also found a statistically significant increase in other forms of aggression that are often considered more severe. Depictions of hitting a partner’s body or face show an increase, as do the practice of choking or neck-slapping.
The increase in depictions of choking is particularly consistent. This practice was absent from the earliest videos sampled for the study, but has shown a steady rise over time, appearing in 15% of the most popular videos of the 2020s. This finding is consistent with anecdotal reports and scientific concerns about the normalization of choking in a sexual context. The study found no significant changes over time in non-consensual aggression, headlines suggesting aggression, or verbal aggression, which remained relatively low.
“While there has been an increase in overall aggression over the years, most of it can be attributed to an increase in relatively mild forms of aggression, primarily spanking,“Shore said. “However, I also found a significant increase in hitting and choking. The latter is particularly concerning as it can influence young people’s sexual scripts and normalise a practice that can be health-risky and even life-threatening.“
The researchers suggest that there may be a two-way relationship in which pornography both reflects and shapes sexual interests. As choking becomes more visible in pornography, it may be perceived as a normal or expected part of a sexual script. This may influence viewers to believe that the practice is safe and does not require explicit consent, potentially leading them to incorporate it into their own sexual activities.