Positive Liberty

If the inclination to look at porn is biological, then to what degree is it a moral question? Or, to speak more precisely, how does the growing body of biological research into pornography affect debates about the place of pornography in society and individual lives? No answers in this piece, but some food for thought:

Another study, out of Emory University, more directly addressed the question of pornography and sex differences. Scientists put men and women under a brain-scanning machine known as functional MRI and then handed them some naked photos.

This time, both men and women reported being aroused by the pictures, which featured nude men, nude women, and heterosexual couples having sex. Participants’ brains showed activity in the visual cortex and a few other regions. The researchers found only one difference between the sexes - in men, the pictures caused more activation of a primitive region known as the amygdala. It’s an area we share with rats.

“Historically the amygdala has been seen as the center for fear and learning,” said Emory University psychologist Kim Wallen, one of the study’s authors. “More recently it appears the amygdala is involved in emotion.”

He speculates that men may find the sex pictures more emotionally salient than women do. So men and women may be equally visual, but men on average have different visual interests.

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