A frightening majority of people are okay with revenge porn, even if few would ever post it themselves
The stats are unsettling: 99% of participants in a study were okay with others publishing explicit pictures of videos of their exes as a form of vengeance, new research finds.
When it comes to your sex life, vulnerability can take many forms.
For example: Stripping naked in front of a woman you don’t really know. Another example: Having an emotionally honest and open relationship.
A terrifying example: Having your man-bits totally exposed on the Internet, because someone you previously trusted has resorted to revenge porn.
Yes, that happens. And as it turns out, a frightening number of people seem to be morally okay with revenge porn—as long as it doesn’t happen to them.
Revenge porn, as the name implies, is defined as sharing sexually explicit photos or video of someone (or multiple people) on any social platform—be it Facebook, a blog, or porn site—without their consent.
Apparently (and unfortunately), the sucker punch isn’t that grave of an offense to women and men alike. In fact, a vast majority of people surveyed in a study from the University of Kent said they were accepting of revenge porn in principle—even if few were willing to actually publish it.
In the small study, which was published in the International Journal of Technoethics, psychologists questioned 100 men and women between the ages 18-54, 82 of them female, about how likely they were to post revenge porn, as well as their attitude toward others circulating explicit content for vengeance. To be fair, that’s a relatively small study.
While only 29% of participant said they’d probably post a salacious pic of their ex, a staggering 99% of the participants conveyed some level of approval—meaning they felt no regret—in regards to others publishing revenge porn because a partner left them. That’s especially problematic online, “especially if one considers the facilitating role of online bystanders in the rapid dissemination of revenge porn materials,” as the researchers note.
Maybe even more disturbing: 87% of participants expressed “some excitement or amusement with revenge porn,” researchers found. (We think people would find it less ‘amusing’ if it were their junk getting ‘facetime’ on Facebook.)
Even weirder: People who actually post revenge porn have distinct, consistent personality traits, researchers note. Those who are impulsive, lack empathy, and possess high levels of the ‘Dark Triad’ traits—psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism (where you manipulate and deceive to get what you want)—were more inclined to post revenge porn, the researchers noted. So while most people are ‘unlikely to commit an act of revenge porn themselves,’ there’s an ‘acceptance’ of others who are doing it, the researchers said in a press release.
Of course, we want to be real clear here: Just because a few loutish study participants in the UK decided it would be funny, posting revenge porn is a criminal offense in many places, and a 1,000% douchey move everywhere.
In the meantime, protect yourself by being smart with sexting (i.e. don’t send dick picks on your smartphone where it can be hacked or revived from the annals of your deleted images), never take pictures or videos while you’re doing the deed, and, hey, here’s a novel idea: Don’t send pictures of your junk at all.
Give her front-row tickets to the live show instead.
