A new study done by psychologist Stephen Sammut and published in Frontiers in Psychology, highlights the dangers of pornography addiction and offers a way out of it. According to Sammut a focus on higher-level cognitive faculties can override the cravings from our lower brain which ultimately spur porn consumption. It is crucial to focus recovery efforts on the areas of our upper brain that are responsible for logic and rational thinking. Porn, on the other hand, is connected to our lower brain areas which are responsible for producing pleasure and emotions. As humans, we tend to be guided more by our pleasure centres than by logic and reason. Sammut suggests that if we begin to use our upper brain’s logical thinking to satisfy our lower brain’s pleasure cravings, we will begin to behave in more acceptable ways. Faith and morals have the potential to contribute to appropriate brain functioning – that is assisting in the prioritization of the upper brain over the lower. So, it makes sense that they could be especially helpful in regards to assisting people in reducing their pornography use. In fact, the results from over a thousand university students found faith, morals, and personal motivation to be the primary variables reported to help reduce pornography use.
