Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Addictive Behaviors journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/addictbeh Predicting pornography use over time: Does self-reported “addiction” matter? Joshua B. Grubbs a, ⁎ , Joshua A. Wilt b , Julie J. Exline b , Kenneth I. Pargament a a Bowling Green State University, United States b Case Western Reserve University, United States HIGHLIGHTS • Links between perceived addiction to pornography and pornography use are examined. • Cross-sectionally, male gender, religiousness, and self-control predicted porn use. • Cross-sectionally, perceived addiction predicted greater average daily porn use. • Longitudinally, male gender predicted any acknowledging any porn use. • Longitudinally, baseline pornography use predicted average daily porn use. ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Pornography Technology Addiction Longitudinal Perception Religion ABSTRACT In recent years, several works have reported on perceived addiction to internet pornography, or the potential for some individuals to label their own use of pornography as compulsive or out of control. Such works have consistently found that perceived addiction is related to concerning outcomes such as psychological distress, relational distress, and other addictive behaviors. However, very little work has specifically examined whether or not perceived addiction is actually related to increased use of pornography, cross-sectionally or over time. The present work sought to address this deficit in the literature. Using two longitudinal samples (Sample 1, Baseline N = 3988; Sample 2, Baseline N = 1047), a variety of factors (e.g., male gender, lower religiousness, and lower self-control) were found to predict any use of pornography. Among those that acknowledged use (Sample 1, Baseline N = 1352; Sample 2, Baseline N = 793), perceived addiction to pornography consistently predicted greater average daily use of pornography. At subsequent longitudinal follow-ups (Sample 1, Baseline N = 265; Sample 2, One Month Later, N = 410, One Year Later, N = 360), only male gender and baseline average por- nography use consistently predicted future use. These findings suggest that perceived addiction to pornography is associated with concurrent use of pornography, but does not appear to predict use over time, suggesting that perceived addiction may not always be an accurate indicator of behavior or addiction. 1. Introduction In developed countries, the majority of adults with internet access have seen internet pornography (Price, Patterson, Regnerus, & Walley, 2016; Rissel et al., 2017; Wright, 2012, 2013). Moreover, in nationally representative studies of adults in the U.S., up to 46% of men and 16% of women report intentionally consuming internet pornography within the past week (Regnerus, Gordon, & Price, 2016). Together, these findings suggest that internet pornography use 1 (hereafter: IPU) is a frequent behavior. However, this use is also controversial, with wide ranging debates about its effects and potentials for harm (for reviews, see: Duffy, Dawson, & das Nair, 2016; Rasmussen, 2016; Short, Black, Smith, Wetterneck, & Wells, 2011; Short, Wetterneck, Bistricky, Shutter, & Chase, 2016). Since the advent of the internet and its consequent use as a medium for the sharing of sexually explicit materials, there have been warnings decrying the addictive nature of internet pornography (Cooper, 1998). Although many scholars urged caution before assuming these dangers (e.g., Barak, Fisher, Belfry, & Lashambe, 1999; Fisher & Barak, 2001), the notion of internet pornography addiction quickly took hold in academic literature (Cooper, Delmonico, & Burg, 2000) and popular awareness (Boulton, 2008). At present, internet pornography addiction https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.02.028 Received 8 January 2018; Received in revised form 20 February 2018; Accepted 21 February 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, United States. E-mail address: GrubbsJ@BGSU.edu (J.B. Grubbs). 1 Abbreviations used: IPU = Internet Pornography Use; PAtIP = Perceived Addiction to Internet Pornography. Addictive Behaviors 82 (2018) 57–64 Available online 21 March 2018 0306-4603/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T