[C Elegans]

Originally Posted by dragon wench

That is unfortunate, I was looking forward to a fresh perspective on an old debate. Given your own scrupulously high standards when it comes to supplying evidence for one's statements it's really too bad you are unable to furnish us with more details, but I do understand the impossibility in this particular situation.

Going by what you say, though. It does appear that the study is very Sweden specific. It would be interesting to make global comparisons, and in particular it might be interesting to look at market studies to examine patterns of porn consumption.

Yes, it is unfortunate. Many governments make similar studies to the Swedish ones, for instance I know that the US FDA make health studies that are not aimed for scientific journals but political decisions - the difference is of course that English is an international language so anyone could go to FDA:s website and read the reports. Well, some reports are confidential of course. In Sweden, almost no governmental reports of this type are confidential, but that doesn't help since nobody understands the content anyway.

The porn and dating studies I mentioned are indeed specific to the Swedish population and I don't think the results can be generalised to other population since sexual behaviour and gender role behaviour are heavily culturally influenced. My reason for even mentioning the results of these studies although they are not scientific publications, is that I want to demonstrate that at least there are objective data showing a variation in men's and women's behaviour that support the view that porn consumption and pleasure in visual sexual stimuli is not necessarily a specifically male behaviour, although it may be in some cultures.

I do think it would be very difficult to investigate porn consumption globally since not only the values surrounding porn but also the legality and accessability vary so widely. A comparison between Western regions like for instance European countries and North America could perhaphs be conducted though, but I don't think anyone has done this. Sexual behaviour is not my expertise area though, so I when I have time I will need to check the databases and ask a collaborator of mine who is specialised in sexual behaviour.