From Curiosity to Criminality: Problematic Pornography Use, Impulsivity, and the Moderating Role of Psychopathy in Escalating from Taboo to Illegal Pornographic Content

This study investigated individual factors that may explain how some individuals view illegal pornographic materials without deviant sexual interest. This pathway was characterized by escalation, defined as the act of engaging with a pornographic genre not eliciting arousal. Escalation was also measured in legal taboo genres to capture its underlying behavioral mechanism while treating illegal escalation as a risk endpoint. Problematic pornography use and impulsivity were examined as potential factors in escalation, and psychopathy as distinguishing escalation from taboo to illegal materials by moderating the relationship between problematic pornography use or impulsivity and illegal escalation. Pornography use patterns and personality traits were assessed in a community sample of adults (N = 323) through an online survey. Problematic pornography use predicted higher taboo escalation and unexpectedly lower illegal escalation at very high psychopathy levels. The same analyses using impulsivity showed no significant effects. However, analyses on separate UPPS-P facets revealed the negative influence of sensation-seeking on taboo escalation, further strengthened by psychopathy. The present findings challenge impulsivity-based accounts of the non-deviant pathway by suggesting that escalation may be more closely linked to dysregulated use and associated desensitization than driven by impulsive and antisocial traits. Thrill-seeking tendencies and reward sensitivity associated with impulsivity and psychopathy instead seem to limit the use of deviant content when arousal is absent. Impulsivity-related influences on escalation may require state-dependent arousal or momentary impulse rather than stable traits. The application of these findings to CSAM offending is however restricted given the absence of CSAM escalation in the sample.