Pornography Use Among Adults in Britain: A Qualitative Study of Patterns of Use, Motivations, and Stigma Management Strategies

Qualitative analysis of pornography use among British adults reveals how platform-mediated access to sexual content creates new stigma management challenges. Drawing on Meisenbach's theory of stigma management communication, finds that "avoiding" strategies such as hiding use, distancing from stigma, and making favorable comparisons are the dominant response, showing how platform affordances that enable private consumption simultaneously produce new social anxieties about disclosure.