Date

4-7-2026

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Chair

Florin Coltea

Keywords

Pornography, sexual scripts, 3AM, religiosity, permissive sexuality, sexual ethics

Disciplines

Psychology

Abstract

The sexual script acquisition, activation, and application model (3AM) posits that viewing pornography leads to the internalization of the scripts implicitly and explicitly depicted. Recent research indicates that pornography viewing is associated with more permissive sexuality. Religious individuals, especially conservative Christians, report greater distress from their pornography use, and research has investigated the role of religiosity in pornography-related outcomes. Religiosity has been shown to protect against pornography exposure and buffer against the internalization of the pornographic script. Sexual script theory posits that individuals with existing scripts that are more deeply held will be less susceptible to new, contradictory scripts. This quantitative moderation analysis utilized a sample (N = 89) of Christian males recruited from social media and Prolific, a paid survey platform, who were surveyed on their pornography viewing habits, religiosity, and permissive sexuality. Results show that Christian males who are less religiously involved view pornography more frequently. No moderation effect of religiosity was found in the relationship between pornography frequency and permissive sexual attitudes. A two-by-three univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant interaction effect of religiosity and pornography use on permissive sexual attitudes. This study expands on existing literature exploring pornography use in Christian males. Future studies should optimize measurements of Christian sexual attitudes.

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