The oft-repeated, but unsupported “Utah as number 1” myth often bolsters another spurious meme, namely, that ‘religious individuals use more porn than nonreligious individuals.’ In fact, the opposite is true. Religiosity predicts far lower rates of porn use.

The preponderance of studies report far lower rates of porn use in religious individuals compared with non-religious individuals. Consider these studies:

1. Adult Social Bonds and Use of Internet Pornography (2004)

2. Generation XXX: Pornography Acceptance and Use Among Emerging Adults (2008)

3. Internet pornography use in the context of external and internal religiosity (2010)

4. “I believe it is wrong but I still do it”: A comparison of religious young men who do versus do not use pornography. (2010)

5. Viewing Sexually-Explicit Materials Alone or Together: Associations with Relationship Quality (2011)

6. Pornography Use: Who Uses It and How It Is Associated with Couple Outcomes (2012)

7. U.S. males and pornography, 1973-2010: consumption, predictors, correlates (2013)

8. Adolescent religiousness as a protective factor against pornography use. (2013)

9. Religiosity, Parent and Peer Attachment, and Sexual Media Use in Emerging Adults (2013)

10. United States women and pornography through four decades: exposure, attitudes, behaviors, individual differences (2013)

11. The Relationship Between Religiosity and Internet Pornography Use (2015)

12. How does religious attendance shape trajectories of pornography use across adolescence? (2016)

13. Spousal Religiosity, Religious Bonding, and Pornography Consumption (2016)

14. How Much More XXX is Generation X Consuming? Evidence of Changing Attitudes and Behaviors Related to Pornography Since 1973. (2016)

15. Religious and Community Hurdles to Pornography Consumption: A National Study of Emerging Adults (2017)

16. The Influence of Religiosity and Risk Taking on Cybersex Engagement among Postgraduate Students: A Study in Malaysian Universities (2017)

17. Explicit Sexual Movie Viewing in the United States According to Selected Marriage and Lifestyle, Work and Financial, Religion and Political Factors (2017)

18. Pornography Use and Loneliness: A Bi-Directional Recursive Model and Pilot Investigation (2017)

19. Seeing is (Not) Believing: How Viewing Pornography Shapes the Religious Lives of Young Americans (2017)

20. Sexual Attitudes of Classes of College Students Who Use Pornography (2017)

21. Predicting pornography use over time: Does self-reported “addiction” matter? (2018)

22. The Use of Online Pornography as Compensation for Loneliness and Lack of Social Ties Among Israeli Adolescents (2018)

23. Individual differences in women’s pornography use, perceptions of pornography, and unprotected sex: Preliminary results from South Korea (2019)

24. Relationship of Religiosity with Cybersex Behavior at X University Students in Bandung (2019)

25. The Association between Religiosity and High-Risk Behaviour among Malay Adolescent (2020)

26. Do You Feel in Control? Sexual Desire, Sexual Passion Expression, and Associations with Perceived Compulsivity to Pornography and Pornography Use Frequency (2020)

27. The Relationship Between Sexual Compulsivity, Emotional and Spiritual Distress of Religious and Non-religious Internet Pornography Users (2021)

28. Intrinsic Religiousness and its Relation to Health Outcomes (2021)