Twitter versus the Grim Reaper: Extraverts but not introverts use Twitter to ward off existential anxiety

As Twitter has grown in popularity, a number of research studies have examined motivations for using this microblogging platform. A recent study drawing on the framework of Terror Management Theory, made the intriguing finding that when confronted with a reminder of one’s eventual death, extraverts increased their Twitter usage while introverts avoided it altogether. Extraverts and introverts appear to have different ways of coping with existential threats that could affect their use of social networking. This might shed some light on the purpose of a large amount of apparently “pointless” communication that occurs on this site.

Grappling with ultimate concerns in 140 characters or less?

Twitter differs other social networking sites such as Facebook in that messages are restricted to very short lengths (up to 140 characters) and messages are generally immediately visible to the general public, not just a user’s followers. This contrasts with typical Facebook usage, where users generally only allow mutual “friends” to see their status updates and their personal profiles. Thus people’s Facebook profiles tend to be more private, whereas typically a person’s Twitter profile can be viewed by anybody.

So what exactly are people on Twitter sharing with the wider world? According to one survey of Twitter, the most common type of content shared (over 40% of all tweets) was “pointless babble,” that is, banal updates about day-to-day activities (e.g. “ate a salad”). Some commentators have disputed this description, arguing that such updates are better described as “social grooming” or “peripheral social awareness.” That is, even though they may seem pointless to outside observers these messages may fulfil some meaningful function for the person. What exactly this function is remains unclear. A recent study explored two possible functions that Twitter usage might serve: restoring a sense of social inclusion after ostracism, and alleviating existential threat (Qiu et al., 2010).

This study involved two experiments, in both of which participants were given access to a pre-existing Twitter account with 30 followers and given opportunities to send brief messages if they wished. The experimenter created the impression that other users were currently online and able to read the participants’ messages by sending two updates about mundane activities (e.g. “helping a friend”). Additionally, participants were assessed on their Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience).

The first experiment tested whether participants who had been experimentally ostracised would send more tweets compared to those who had not. Most people experience ostracism, or deliberate social exclusion as highly aversive and following ostracism people become motivated to restore a sense of social connection. However, the experimenters found that ostracised participants sent no more tweets than non-ostracised ones, contrary to expectations. The authors thought this indicated that sending brief messages to strangers does not satisfy a person’s need for social inclusion after being ostracised. Perhaps this is because users do not expect random strangers to respond to their tweets. After all, is there a point to communicating if others do not respond? The second experiment suggested another possibility.

The purpose of the second experiment was to test the effects of a reminder of one’s own mortality on Twitter usage. A large body of research known as Terror Management Theory (TMT) has found that being reminded of the fact that one will eventually die creates a sense of existential threat that people attempt to cope with in a number of ways (Hart, Shaver, & Goldenberg, 2005). The most well-researched coping methods are cultural worldview defence (e.g. “My country, my people, are really great!”), bolstering self-esteem (“ I'm great!”) and seeking closeness with loved ones (“someone cares about me”). These coping methods seem to provide a buffer against existential anxiety by reinforcing a sense that one is special, important, and connected with something larger than one’s self, and not merely an insignificant creature with a fleeting existence.

Qiu et al. argued that Twitter usage could help alleviate existential anxiety by providing participants with a means to affirm their own existence, that is, to announce to the world in effect “I am alive!” To test this, participants were asked to write either a brief essay about their own death (mortality salience condition) or about a neutral topic (control condition). Then they were provided with a series of opportunities to tweet messages if they wished. What the researchers found was that there was an effect of mortality salience but this depended on the personality trait of extraversion. Specifically, after mortality salience highly extraverted participants sent more tweets (nearly 10 on average) compared to their counterparts in the control condition  whereas highly introverted participants sent less (about zero on average). In the control condition there was no difference between extraverted and introverted participants in number of tweets sent (3 – 4 on average).  

Qiu et al. did not attempt to explain why extraverted and introverted participants responded to existential threat so differently, or even why their Twitter usage did not differ in the control condition. Extraversion is associated with greater sociability so the fact that in the control condition extraverts did not make greater usage of this social networking tool seems a little surprising. However, previous research has found that social motives do not predict how much time a person spends using Twitter (Johnson & Yang, 2009), suggesting that under routine circumstances a person’s sociability may not be that important to how much they use this medium. However, this might change when a person experiences an existential threat. Extraverts might see Twitter usage as a good way to proclaim their existence to other people, even if these others are complete strangers who may have little interest in the minutiae of one’s life. Introverts appear to adopt a different strategy, so perhaps they feel a need to turn inward and be within themselves as a way of reaffirming their own existence. For introverts experiencing an existential threat, sending banal messages to strangers might seem like a superficial distraction from deeper concerns. For extraverts, such a distraction might be just what they need. The fact that they are strangers might seem less important to them than that they are a potential audience.  

Some limitations of the study are worth noting. Participants were assigned a pre-existing Twitter account with random strangers as followers. This may not adequately reflect how people use the service in real life. Additionally, the researchers assessed participants on five personality traits yet presented results relevant to only one of them. With five sets of results, the odds are increased that statistically significant findings could occur by chance alone. Additionally, the outcome measure was the number of tweets sent and their content was not assessed. It would be interesting to explore whether message content after mortality salience differed from the control condition based on personality traits. For example, people high in neuroticism might have been more disturbed than others by writing about death and their tweets might perhaps have reflected this (e.g. “I’m freaking out about this experiment!”). Additionally, it would have been interesting to see if participants’ messages after mortality salience involved efforts to bolster self-esteem or defend their cultural world-view, which are also known to help buffer against existential threat.

This study is the first one that I know of to apply principles of TMT to social networking usage. As social networking continues to gain in popularity I would welcome more such research. I think this study shows that what may appear to some to be “pointless babble” may actually serve a deeper purpose, depending on one’s personality and momentary needs.

Other articles concerning social media:

Is there something wrong with people who don't use Facebook? What research really says about non-users. One of my most popular posts!

The Misunderstood Personality Profile of Wikipedia Members Contrary to a widely reported study, Wikipedians are not close-minded at all. 

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© Scott McGreal. Please do not reproduce without permission. Brief excerpts may be quoted as long as a link to the original article is provided. 

This article also appears on Psychology Today on my blog Unique - Like Everybody Else.

 

References

Hart, J., Shaver, P. R., & Goldenberg, J. L. (2005). Attachment, Self-Esteem, Worldviews, and Terror Management: Evidence for a Tripartite Security System. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 999 - 1013.

Johnson, P. and Yang, S. , 2009-08-05 "Uses and Gratifications of Twitter: An Examination of User Motives and Satisfaction of Twitter Use" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Sheraton Boston, Boston, MA Online. 2012-06-20 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p376367_index.html

Qiu L, Leung AK, Ho JH, Yeung QM, Francis KJ, & Chua PF (2010). Understanding the psychological motives behind microblogging. Studies in health technology and informatics, 154, 140-4 PMID: 20543286

The effectiveness of placebo treatment for pain is related to personality traits

Medical researchers have long known that placebo treatments can produce real effects, such as pain relief. Personality traits are also known to influence a person’s response to treatments for certain conditions. A recent study has found that personality traits appear to influence how strongly a person responds to a placebo treatment for pain. Personality traits associated with self-control and the regulation of anger in particular were associated with greater pain relief. This raises the possibility that improving a person’s self-control and ability to manage anger could also improve their ability to control pain.

Image courtesy of Michal Marcol at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In this study, volunteers received a series of four injections while receiving PET scans to monitor brain activity (Peciña et al., 2012). Two of the injections were designed to be painless and the other two were intended to be quite painful. Participants were not told in advance which injection they would receive so as not to bias their expectations. After receiving one of the painful injections they were administered a substance that they were told would relieve the pain but which was actually an inert saline solution with no analgesic properties. This placebo treatment produced a significant reduction in pain. Pain was rated both subjectively (by self-ratings of pain intensity) and objectively (changes in opioid receptor function observed through PET scans). Pain relief tended to be stronger in participants who rated themselves higher in the personality traits of ego resiliency and agreeableness and lower in neuroticism. Agreeableness and neuroticism each consist of a number of narrower facets that were also examined. The facets that predicted placebo response most strongly were high altruism and straightforwardness (facets of agreeableness) and low angry hostility (a neuroticism facet that is also related to low agreeableness).

Neuroticism is a trait associated with negative emotionality People high in neuroticism tend to report more physical symptoms and complaints, such as headaches and muscle tension and so on, than less neurotic individuals (Ode & Robinson, 2007). People high in neuroticism cope with pain more poorly than other people probably because they tend to over-react emotionally. There is evidence linking physical pain and negative emotions as neuroimaging studies have found that endogenous opioid activity in a number of brain regions modulate both the experience of physical pain and of negative emotions. Angry hostility was the neuroticism facet that most strongly predicted (poor) placebo response in this study. The authors stated that there is research evidence linking anger to lower opioid receptor system functioning so this result was not surprising (Peciña, et al., 2012).

Agreeableness is an interpersonal trait associated with cooperativeness and concern for others. The authors of the study noted that patients who are highly agreeable tend to have a better relationship with their doctors as they take a frank and collaborative approach. Agreeable patients may therefore respond more readily to treatment, even if the treatment is a placebo. Additionally, agreeableness has been linked to placebo responses to acupuncture. They also noted that PET scans showed that the placebo response (that is, opioid receptor function) occurred in brain regions that respond to observing pain in others, and therefore play a role in empathy. Agreeable people tend to be empathetic to the suffering of others, so this overlap between the brain regions associated with the placebo response and with empathy might help explain the connection with agreeableness, particularly the altruism facet.

Altruism is associated with selflessness and self-sacrifice for the benefit of others. Perhaps people who are self-sacrificing are better able to control pain? Perhaps, being able to suppress pain when needed facilitates self-sacrifice because the pain and inconvenience of foregoing one’s own interests for the benefit of another person becomes easier to bear. Straightforwardness, the other agreeableness facet that predicted the placebo response, is associated with honesty and openness in one’s communication with others. One possible explanation for its connection with the placebo effect is that people who are naturally honest may have been more likely to believe the researcher when they were told they were being given a treatment that would provide pain relief.

Agreeableness is also related to effortful self-control, in particular the ability to control the expression of anger (Ode & Robinson, 2007). As noted previously, anger has been linked to the opioid system, so this may another reason that agreeableness is linked to the placebo effect. Another personality trait linked to both self-control and the placebo effect is ego-resiliency.

Ego-resiliency might be described as flexibility in self-control. That is, a person can inhibit their impulses when required by the situation, and yet also allow him or herself to be spontaneous and uninhibited when this is permitted. That is, the person can adapt their level of self-expression to the demands of the situation. This in contrast to people who are either chronically over-controlled – that is, unable to loosen up when they need to – or under-controlled, unable to restrain their impulses when expected to do so. Ego-resiliency assists a person in adapting to stress and adversity as over-controlled individuals tend to respond in a stiff, repetitive manner, whereas under-controlled people respond in a chaotic and unfocused manner (Letzring, Block, & Funder, 2005). The researchers argue that ego-resiliency is associated with positive emotions and adaptive changes in areas of the brain related to reward and emotional processing. Specifically, there is evidence that this trait may be associated with lower levels of activation of the dopamine system during expectation of reward, and lower levels of dopamine in turn has been associated with greater activation of endogenous opioid receptors during a painful stressor (Peciña, et al., 2012). 

The findings that the placebo effect is linked to personality traits associated with self-control, i.e. agreeableness and ego-resiliency, suggests that the placebo effect is influenced by a person’s capacity to regulate how they respond to adverse experiences. Even though the placebo effect would seem to be outside of conscious awareness, it appears that people who have developed the ability to regulate their emotions may also have a greater ability to regulate pain. This might be because the brain regions that modulate responses to pain (the opioid receptor systems) also are involved in regulating negative emotions. Additionally, it could be the case that people with greater self-control may take an attitude of active engagement to treatment, even placebo treatment, as opposed to passively waiting to see what happens. As a consequence they might respond more effectively. Emotional regulation is a trainable skill. That is, psychologists can teach people strategies to regulate how they experience and express their emotions to cope more effectively with stress. Psychologists already teach anxiety management strategies to people with chronic pain. It seems possible that training in emotional regulation, such as anger management, could actually effect changes in the opioid receptor system, resulting in a stronger placebo effect. This might have implications for how people manage pain. Future research, such as PET studies could determine whether training could have such an effect on the brain and whether this assists in coping with pain.

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© Scott McGreal. Please do not reproduce without permission. Brief excerpts may be quoted as long as a link to the original article is provided. 

This article also appears on Psychology Today on my blog Unique - Like Everybody Else.

   

References

Letzring, T. D., Block, J., & Funder, D. C. (2005). Ego-control and ego-resiliency: Generalization of self-report scales based on personality descriptions from acquaintances, clinicians, and the self. Journal of Research in Personality, 39(4), 395-422. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2004.06.003

Ode, S., & Robinson, M. D. (2007). Agreeableness and the self-regulation of negative affect: Findings involving the neuroticism/somatic distress relationship. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(8), 2137-2148. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.06.035

Peciña M, Azhar H, Love TM, Lu T, Fredrickson BL, Stohler CS, & Zubieta JK (2013). Personality trait predictors of placebo analgesia and neurobiological correlates. Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 38 (4), 639-46 PMID: 23187726

The Mental Health Troubles of the "Spiritual but not Religious"

Scholars have increasingly investigated the relationship between spirituality and/or religion and mental and physical health in recent years. It almost seems to have become conventional wisdom that spirituality is associated with better health, mental and physical. However, a recently published British study found that people who consider themselves spiritual but not religious are more likely to have a mental disorder compared to conventionally religious people and to those who are neither religious nor spiritual. Conventionally religious people and those who were neither religious nor spiritual did not differ in their mental health status, suggesting that being religious offers few advantages in terms of mental health. The reasons for this are still unclear. Studies on the psychology of spirituality offer some clues as to why spiritual but not religious people might be prone to poorer mental health although more research is needed to fully explain the relationship.

Recent scholarship has criticised claims that “spirituality” is beneficial for mental health (see this article for example) based on the fact that definitions of spirituality have been broadened so much that they imply mental health by definition (Koenig, 2008). Spirituality traditionally had a narrow definition centred on belief in supernatural spirits such as God. However, mental health services  have become increasingly interested in addressing the “spiritual” needs of consumers in recent times, and as a result attempts have been made to redefine the term in a way that would be maximally inclusive, so as to apply to people from diverse religious backgrounds and to those with no religion (Koenig, 2008). Many studies have broadened the term to incorporate a wide range of positive psychological concepts, such as purpose in life, hopefulness, social connectedness, peacefulness and well-being in general. This becomes problematic for research attempting to assess the relationship between “spirituality” and mental health because by most definitions good mental health implies that a person has some purpose in life, is hopeful, socially connected and has peace and well-being. Thus it becomes a meaningless tautology to say that spirituality is associated with better mental health when the term is defined this way (Lindeman & Aarnio, 2007).

A recent British study looked at the relationship between spirituality and mental health using a more traditional understanding of the term to avoid this problem of tautology (King et al., 2013). The study involved in-depth interviews with over 7000 people in England. Participants were sorted into those whose understanding of life was predominantly religious, spiritual, or neither. These terms were explained in the following way:

‘By religion, we mean the actual practice of a faith, e.g. going to a temple, mosque, church or synagogue. Some people do not follow a religion but do have spiritual beliefs or experiences. Some people make sense of their lives without any religious or spiritual belief.’

Participants were also interviewed in depth about their mental health, alcohol and drug use, social support, psychotropic medication usage, gambling, and were asked about their overall happiness. 

The results showed that religious participants were similar to non-religious/non-spiritual ones in regards to their mental health in most respects, although the religious were less likely to have used or been dependent on drugs in the last year. However, there were striking differences for those in the spiritual but not religious category. Compared to people who were neither religious nor spiritual, spiritual but not religious people were more likely to take psychotropic medication, to use or be dependent on recreational drugs, to have a generalised anxiety disorder, phobia, or any neurotic disorder, or to have abnormal eating attitudes. These differences still held even when taking into account social support and physical health, as well as age, sex, and ethnicity. None of the groups differed in their overall happiness though.

The authors concluded that people who are spiritual but not religious in their understanding of life are more vulnerable to mental disorders than other people. The nature of the causal relationship between spirituality and mental disorder is currently unknown. An earlier British study had similar findings and the authors noted that it is possible that not having a religious framework for one’s beliefs could lead to mental disorder in people who have a need for a spiritual understanding of life (King, Weich, Nazroo, & Blizard, 2006). Alternatively, having a mental disorder might prompt a person to engage in a spiritual quest in the hope of mental healing or deeper understanding of one’s problems.

Previous findings concerning the personality traits associated with “spirituality” and religiosity might shed some light onto the relationship between spirituality and mental disorder (Saucier & Skrzypińska, 2006). Spirituality in this study was defined as “quest for meaning, unity, connectedness to nature, humanity, and the transcendent.” Note that this definition focuses on subjective and mystical understandings of life, in contrast to more conventional religiosity which emphasises adherence to orthodox belief systems. Although many people describe themselves in terms of both conventional religiosity and subjective spirituality, people who were more focused on subjective spirituality and less interested in religiosity tended to have distinctly different personality characteristics compared to those with a more orthodox religious orientation. People who described themselves in conventional religious terms tended to be fairly conservative in their attitudes and beliefs. Those who were more spiritual and less religious tended to be more non-conforming and even peculiar in their outlook and personal traits. For example, they were more likely than other people to describe themselves as weird and crazy. Additionally, they tended to believe in a range of “alternative” ideas (such as psychokinesis, reincarnation, astrology, witchcraft, and psychic powers), say that they “respect the power of magic,” and scored highly in measures of magical thinking, fantasy proneness, and absorption[1].

"Unfiltered anger" by Louis Dyer

Characteristics such as magical thinking and so on have been linked to a set of traits known as schizotypy, or proneness to mildly psychotic thinking. Schizotypy refers to a cluster of cognitive, emotional, and behavioural traits that are similar to but generally milder than those exhibited in schizophrenia. It is associated with unusual beliefs about reality (e.g. that it is possible to harm other by thinking bad thoughts about them) and the tendency to have odd perceptual experiences (such as feeling that strangers are reading one’s mind). Other research has found that "New Age" beliefs and practices (in this study this term encompassed such things as yoga, Reiki, astrology, and Tarot) are associated with schizotypy (Farias, Claridge, & Lalljee, 2005). Schizotypy tends to be associated with high levels of anxiety and depression (Lewandowski et al., 2006). It could be the case that people with schizotypal tendencies and associated proneness to anxiety and depression may find unconventional spiritual ideas to be particularly appealing. It is also possible (and I admit this is speculation) that adherence to such ideas exacerbates their existing mental imbalances. (It should be noted though that many people with schizotypal tendencies are otherwise well-adjusted. Schizotypy has also been linked to artistic creativity.)

Whether unconventional spiritual pursuits are harmful to mental health is not yet known. In some respects, the association between spirituality and mental disorder seems contrary to the benefits that many spiritual traditions claim to offer. Spiritual fulfilment is supposed to lead to inner peace, even bliss. In fact certain mystics have gone so far as to claim that spiritual “work” can lead to an inner transformation that will result in “True wisdom and perfect happiness”! The very idea of “perfect happiness” seems like an impossible mirage, although a more charitable interpretation is that the term is intended as a poetic metaphor rather than a literal reality. So why are so many spiritual people so troubled? It may be that some people are simply not that successful in pursuing whatever spiritual fulfilment they are seeking. King et al. (2013) found that those who were spiritual but not religious rated the strength of their belief and the importance of the practice of their faith somewhat lower than the religious participants in their study. This might indicate a lack of dedication or self-discipline on the part of those who claim to be spiritual but not religious. More detailed studies are needed to determine if this is the case.

Another limitation of the study by King et al. was that it did not examine the specific content of the beliefs and practices of the spiritual but not religious. The content of one’s spiritual beliefs could well affect one’s mental health. For example, belief in the interconnectedness of things might be relatively beneficial, whereas more “superstitious” beliefs such as in the “evil eye” could be harmful to one’s mental health.  Research could examine whether certain particular spiritual practices are more associated with mental disorder than others. For example, yoga and meditation are generally thought to be beneficial to one’s well-being, but more bizarre practices (such as “regression” to before one’s birth) might encourage a person to hold peculiar ideas that may not serve them well in real life.

An additional puzzle is why the three groups in the King et al. study did not differ in their overall happiness even though one group was more prone to mental disorder. Happiness was assessed with a single question, whereas mental health status was assessed with a clinical interview, so a more detailed assessment of well-being might provide a more nuanced picture.

Considering the increasing prominence in modern society of people who consider themselves spiritual but not religious, more in-depth research is needed to understand fully why this group seems to be particularly vulnerable to mental illness.

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© Scott McGreal. Please do not reproduce without permission. Brief excerpts may be quoted as long as a link to the original article is provided. 

This article also appears on Psychology Today on my blog Unique - Like Everybody Else. Check out my latest articles!

Other blog posts related to spirituality

Psilocybin and personality

Psilocybin and brain function

Psilocybin for anxiety and depression in cancer

DMT, aliens and reality – part 1

DMT, aliens and reality – part 2

Precognition and the search for the soul – part 1

Precognition and the search for the soul – part 2

The Spirituality of Psychedelic Drug Users

References

Farias, M., Claridge, G., & Lalljee, M. (2005). Personality and cognitive predictors of New Age practices and beliefs. Personality and Individual Differences, 39(5), 979-989. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2005.04.003

King, M., Marston, L., McManus, S., Brugha, T., Meltzer, H., & Bebbington, P. (2012). Religion, spirituality and mental health: results from a national study of English households The British Journal of Psychiatry, 202 (1), 68-73 DOI: 10.1192/bjp.bp.112.112003

King, M., Weich, S., Nazroo, J., & Blizard, B. (2006). Religion, mental health and ethnicity. EMPIRIC – A national survey of England. Journal of Mental Health, 15(2), 153-162. doi: doi:10.1080/09638230600608891

Koenig, H. G. (2008). Concerns About Measuring "Spirituality" in Research. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 196(5), 349-355 310.1097/NMD.1090b1013e31816ff31796.

Lewandowski, K. E., Barrantes-Vidal, N., Nelson-Gray, R. O., Clancy, C., Kepley, H. O., & Kwapil, T. R. (2006). Anxiety and depression symptoms in psychometrically identified schizotypy. Schizophrenia Research, 83(2–3), 225-235. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2005.11.024

Lindeman, M., & Aarnio, K. (2007). Superstitious, magical, and paranormal beliefs: An integrative model. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(4), 731-744. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2006.06.009

Saucier, G., & Skrzypińska, K. (2006). Spiritual But Not Religious? Evidence for Two Independent Dispositions. Journal of Personality, 74(5), 1257-1292. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2006.00409.x

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[1] I discuss absorption and its relationship to mystical experiences occasioned by psychedelic drugs in a previous post.

What are Porn Stars' Personalities Like?

What recent research might suggest about porn stars’ personality traits

As noted in a previous post, a number of recent studies have provided a glimpse into the usually secretive world of pornography actors and actresses. Compared to matched community control groups, both male and female performers reported higher self-esteem, earlier age of first sexual experience, greater enjoyment of sex, and a far greater number of sex partners. Note that this latter finding referred only to sex partners outside their work in pornography. Additionally, the study on females reported that actresses described themselves as more “spiritual” than women in the control group. None of these studies reported directly on the personality traits of porn performers, but it is possible to speculate about this based on what is known about how personality is related to the factors mentioned.

Jesse Jane states "I've always been an extremely sexual person and I knew I would like to do videos." 

© Glenn Francis,www.PacificProDigital.com 

In my previous article, I argued that porn stars are probably high in a characteristic known as sociosexuality. Sociosexuality refers to a person’s willingness to engage in sexual relations outside of a committed relationship and their interest in having a variety of sexual partners. This argument was based on the fact that both male (Griffith, Mitchell, Hammond, Gu, & Hart, 2012) and female performers (Griffith, Mitchell, Hart, Adams, & Gu, 2012) reported very high numbers of sex partners in their private lives, separately from their film work, as well as very high ratings of enjoyment of sex itself. A number of research studies have looked at how sociosexuality and sexual promiscuity are related to personality traits.

People of both sexes who are high in interpersonal dominance, that is, those who are socially bold and assertive, tend to have many sexual partners compared to those who are more submissive (Markey & Markey, 2007). Dominant individuals do not seem to be shy about seeking out sexual partners, whereas submissive people may wait for others to seek them out. A number of studies have also linked high sociosexuality and having a large number of sexual partners to certain antisocial traits in both men and women. For example, people high in sociosexuality tend to rate themselves lower in the traits of honesty, humility, and agreeableness (Bourdage, Lee, Ashton, & Perry, 2007). Additionally, sociosexuality has also been linked to a group of traits known collectively as the “dark triad”, namely psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism (Jonason, Li, Webster, & Schmitt, 2009). Briefly, psychopathy refers to willingness to violate the rights of others, Machiavellianism to willingness to manipulate and use others, and narcissism to an inflated sense of one’s own importance and superiority. These antisocial traits might be linked to sociosexuality because people high in these traits might have a selfish attitude towards sex combined with a willingness to deceive, flatter, and cajole others into having sexual relations.

The findings discussed so far, if applicable to porn stars would seem to imply a rather unflattering portrait of these individuals as cold and antisocial in nature. However, other research suggests that there may be another, more pleasant face that could also apply. A study on interpersonal styles suggests that individuals who are either very high or very low in the trait of interpersonal warmth tend have more sexual partners than people of average warmth (Markey & Markey, 2007). That is, sexually promiscuous people tend to be either very warm or very cold in the way they relate to other people. The authors of this study argued that sexual promiscuity could have different personal meanings depending on how warm or cold a person is. Cold individuals may see sex as a selfish act in which they have little regard for their partners’ feelings. They may have multiple sexual partners as a way of avoiding commitment, perhaps out of fear of mistreatment or rejection. Warm individuals may have a more caring view of sexual interaction and actually desire to share love, intimacy and pleasure with many different people. This raises the possibility that porn stars also might fall (more or less) into two interpersonal types: warm and cold. Coldness is associated with the dark triad, so the selfish antisocial personality traits associated with sociosexuality might be more characteristic of cold rather than warm performers.

Other research has found that people who have more sexual partners also tend to have higher self-esteem, especially if they are men (Walsh, 1991). This may be because sexual advances involve a risk of rejection and therefore self-confidence is required to make them. Also, having sex with someone may affirm one’s sense of attractiveness and be a source of pride.  In regard to male porn stars, it has been argued that actors might regard their ability to perform sexually on cue as of particular source importance. In regard to female actresses, the researchers point out that having a highly positive image of oneself and one’s body would be very helpful to someone expected to undress on camera. Additionally, the authors consider that porn stars may well have a streak of exhibitionism and that their work allows them to freely express this aspect of their personality and be praised for doing so. Perhaps these factors might explain why porn stars of both sexes report high self-esteem than other people. 

Notable porn stars: Riley Steele, Stoya, BiBi Jones, Kayden Kross, and Jesse Jane 

© Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com

Although self-esteem is generally consider an important marker of psychological health and well-being, the study’s authors’ point out that in some people self-esteem can be a marker of less desirable characteristics, such as narcissism and Machiavellianism (members of the “dark triad” mentioned earlier). Other research has found that there are different types of self-esteem. Stable self-esteem, based on liking of one’s personal attributes appears to be healthier than unstable self-esteem, based on pride in one’s accomplishments (Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993). The former seems to reflect a healthy self-regard that allows one to weather setbacks. The latter is easily threatened by personal failures and leads to defensiveness in response to negative feedback as well as general arrogance. Future research could help clarify if the self-esteem of porn stars tends to be mostly stable or unstable. 

Another finding that could be clarified is that from the study on female performers regarding their greater “spirituality” than women in the general community. (For some reason, the study on males did not appear to assess this at all.) The term spirituality is frequently used in mental health literature, quite often without being clearly defined. This can lead to confusion about what exactly is meant by the term, resulting in rather amusing headlines around the internet proclaiming “Porn stars more religious than other women.” To a casual reader this might give the impression that when not making erotic films, female porn stars are devoutly attending church and praying, an idea that seem more than a little incongruous with their public image. However, the actual measure of spirituality [1] used in the study asks very generic questions intended to refer to “religion, spirituality, and any other personal beliefs you may hold.” Example questions include:

“To what extent do you feel your life to be meaningful?” and “To what extent do your personal beliefs give you the strength to face difficulties?”

None of the questions refer to belief in God or a higher power, or to participation in traditional religious or even “spiritual” activities such as prayer or meditation. Although the questions could be interpreted very loosely as “spiritual”, it would seem more accurate to consider these questions as referring to one’s ability to cope with and understand life difficulties and to experience personal meaning. A better interpretation might be something like “self-efficacy” or perhaps “resilience” than “spirituality” which is easily misunderstood. The study finding might suggest that female porn stars consider they have personal beliefs (whatever they may be) that give them an edge over other women in coping with difficult life events. Perhaps working in the adult film industry requires particular mental toughness to thrive compared to more mundane roles. However, the study does not speak to what porn stars actually believe and so does not address whether or not they differ from other women in terms of any specifically religious or particularly “spiritual” beliefs as these terms are usually understood.

The ideas in this article are necessarily speculative. Only further research can determine whether porn star tend to fall into either a warm, friendly type or a cold, selfish type with dark triad traits. It might even be the case that these personality traits are not particularly relevant at to this population at all, as they might simply be people with very permissive sexual attitudes and very positive views of themselves. Further research is also needed to examine what self-esteem and “spirituality” really mean for porn stars so as to better understand why they are higher in these things than other people.

Note

[1] The World Health Organization Quality of Life instrument, spirituality facet.

This post has previously appeared on Psychology Today in my blog Unique - Like Everybody Else

Related Reading:
Porn Stars and Evolutionary Psychology

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© Scott McGreal. Please do not reproduce without permission. Brief excerpts may be quoted as long as a link to the original article is provided. 

References

Bourdage, J. S., Lee, K., Ashton, M. C., & Perry, A. (2007). Big Five and HEXACO model personality correlates of sexuality. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(6), 1506-1516. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.04.008

Griffith, J., Mitchell, S., Hammond, B., Gu, L., & Hart, C. (2012). A Comparison of Sexual Behaviors and Attitudes, Self-Esteem, Quality of Life, and Drug Use Among Pornography Actors and a Matched Sample International Journal of Sexual Health, 24 (4), 254-266 DOI: 10.1080/19317611.2012.710183

Griffith, J., Mitchell, S., Hart, C., Adams, L., & Gu, L. (2012). Pornography Actresses: An Assessment of the Damaged Goods Hypothesis Journal of Sex Research, 1-12 DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2012.719168

Jonason, P. K., Li, N. P., Webster, G. D., & Schmitt, D. P. (2009). The dark triad: Facilitating a short-term mating strategy in men. European Journal of Personality, 23(1), 5-18. doi: 10.1002/per.698

Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C.-R., Berry, A., & Harlow, T. (1993). There's More to Self-Esteem Than Whether It Is High or Low: The Importance of Stability of Self-Esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(6), 1190-1204.

Markey, P. M., & Markey, C. N. (2007). The interpersonal meaning of sexual promiscuity. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(6), 1199-1212. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2007.02.004

Walsh, A. (1991). Self-esteem and sexual behavior: Exploring gender differences. Sex Roles, 25(7-8), 441-450. doi: 10.1007/bf00292533

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An Evolutionary Psychology Perspective on Porn Stars

Although a great body of psychological research has examined pornography, there has been a paucity of studies focusing on performers in this profession. A recent paper (Griffith, Mitchell, Hart, Adams, & Gu, 2012) testing whether or not female pornography actresses are in fact “damaged goods” has attracted widespread attention. Two other papers have been published by the same lead author, one discussing what motivates women to work in pornography (Griffith, Adams, Hart, & Mitchell, 2012)  and the other looking at male performers (Griffith, Mitchell, Hammond, Gu, & Hart, 2012). The findings confirm some but disconfirm other popular stereotypes about porn actors and actresses. The studies also raise a number of interesting questions. Evolutionary psychology theories about variations in human sexual behaviour might shed light on the particular motivations of porn stars. For example, one intriguing prediction based on evolutionary psychology is that female pornography actresses might have more sons than daughters compared to other women. This hypothesis remains to be tested. 

Jenna Jameson, considered the world's most famous porn actress. © Glenn Francis,www.PacificProDigital.com 

Past research into performers in the porn industry has run into difficulty because of this population to talk to the researchers. The industry apparently tends to be a rather closed and secretive world and actors tend to keep to themselves, perhaps due to the social stigma attached to their work. Sharon Mitchell, a coauthor of the recent papers on this topic, actually works in the industry and also founded a medical foundation that provides STD testing for pornography performers. Participants in these studies were therefore recruited through a clinic that provides such testing.  

The findings of the “damaged goods” paper have been summarised in detail elsewhere, for example, in this post. To recap briefly, contrary to the stereotypical view of pornography actresses as women psychologically damaged by an abusive upbringing, the study found that these women were no more likely to have been sexually abused as children than women in a matched control group drawn from the general population. Additionally, among other findings, pornography actresses reported higher self-esteem, and sexual satisfaction than other women. Similar results were found for male actors compared to men in a control group, contrary to stereotypes of these men as teenage runaways escaping abusive homes (Griffith, Mitchell, Hammond, et al., 2012). In regards, to the performers’ sexuality, the results are probably more in accord with popular stereotypes. Both male and female performers reported having their first sexual experience at a younger age than other people and reported having had a far larger number of sexual partners. Note that when answering this last question, participants were asked NOT to include people they had had sex with only as part of their work, so these are sexual partners from their private lives. In fact, when asked to indicate the number of sexual partners in the last 12 months, the average number for porn actresses was larger than the average number of partners that ordinary women had had in a lifetime. Interestingly, the average number of lifetime partners reported by male actors (about 170) was notably larger than that for actresses (about 75). Perhaps future studies will shed some light on why there is such a large difference. Both figures are much larger than the averages for men (about 10) and for women (about 5) in the control groups though.

Sharon Mitchell co-authored recent papers on the porn industry

Also of note was that both male and female performers indicated that they enjoyed sex more on average compared to their control groups. For example, on a 10-point scale, porn actresses rated their enjoyment of sex on average as 9.40 compared to other women with an average score of 8.28. This may not seem like a huge difference at first, but the researchers noted that 69% of porn actresses rated their enjoyment as 10 out of 10, compared to 33% of other women. Additionally, less than 2% of actresses rated their enjoyment as 5 or less, compared to about 12% in the control group. Among the men, 83% of porn actors rated their enjoyment of sex as 10 out 10, compared to 51% of the control group males. Only one of the male actors in the study rated his enjoyment as less than 5, compared to about 8% of the control group.  

One striking difference between male and female performers was in sexual orientation. The vast majority of male actors identified as heterosexual, with only 8 bisexual and 2 homosexual (out of 105 participants), similar to the control group. In contrast, among the actresses, over 67% identified as bisexual, and the remainder were heterosexual except for one lesbian. (Among the control group women, over 92% identified as heterosexual, about 7% as bisexual, and the remainder as lesbian.)

What seems very clear from these studies is that both male and female performers have unusually high levels of sexual desire and a willingness to have sexual relations with a large number of partners. In psychology, a person’s willingness and desire to have uncommitted sexual relations is known as sociosexuality. (Lay people might simply use the word promiscuity.) Sociosexuality has been of considerable interest to evolutionary psychologists who are interested in understanding the diversity of human mating strategies. Porn stars would appear to be at the extreme end of the scale in sociosexuality. There is evidence that sociosexuality is to an extent heritable and evolutionary psychologists have argued that it represents part of an evolved mating strategy (Gangestad & Simpson, 1990).

Evolutionary psychologists have argued that humans have developed a number of different mating strategies to ensure their reproductive success. People with a restricted strategy require considerable commitment to and investment in a relationship from a partner before they will engage in sexual relations. People with a more unrestricted strategy require much less commitment or investment and may be willing to enter quickly into sexual relations with a new partner. In the general population, men are usually higher than women in sociosexual tendencies, so the fact that female porn actresses appear to have such high sex drives is even more unusual. From an evolutionary perspective it has often been thought that men tend to be less sexually restricted than women because they invest less in reproduction and have the potential ability to impregnate many partners. Women on the other hand invest heavily in reproduction and can only have one pregnancy at a time. Therefore, they might be expected to be more selective than men in regard to who they have sexual relations with. But if this is the case, how to explain the fact that some women have a relatively unrestricted sociosexual orientation, while some men are highly faithful to their partners?

In order to explain this, evolutionary psychologists have developed more sophisticated theories that acknowledge that each sex may choose from more than one kind of mating strategy. In particular, individuals of either sex may tend to specialise in a particular mating strategy.[1] Women with a restricted sociosexual orientation will prefer partners who demonstrate their willingness to invest time and resources into the relationship and provide for her children. Women with an unrestricted orientation seek partners who show signs of high quality genes associated with reproductive success, in order to pass these genes onto their children. That is, they will seek to mate with men who are highly physically attractive and/or have high social status. These kinds of men in their turn will find unrestricted women preferable to more restricted women who demand more relationship exclusivity, as they seek to mate with as many women as possible. Less exciting but more reliable men who have much less chance of being successful in mating with many partners will for their part find it more profitable to appeal to more restricted women and therefore be more willing to commit to long-term relationships.[2] These two broad kinds of strategies will tend to maintain a balance with each other over time because people who specialise in one kind of strategy tend to compete most intensely with each other for mates. Thus, for example if most women in a population pursue a restricted strategy they will be in very intense competition with each other for men willing to commit to them. In this situation, the minority of unrestricted women will have a competitive advantage and will become highly sought after by attractive males. On the other hand, if the unrestricted orientation becomes too common, these women will experience more competition with each other.

Jesse Jane states "I've always been an extremely sexual person and I knew I would like to do videos." 

© Glenn Francis,www.PacificProDigital.com 

One prediction made by this theory is that women with an unrestricted orientation will tend to produce more sons than daughters (Gangestad & Simpson, 1990). Their sons are more likely than daughters to benefit from inheriting the characteristics that made their fathers reproductively successful. This is because males tend to have greater variability than women in their reproductive success. That is, some men will have many more children than others, whereas the number of children women can have is in a narrower range. Women with a more restrictive orientation on the other hand will benefit from having more daughters. This is because these women are less likely to mate with highly reproductively successful males (after all, men who commit to a single woman forego mating opportunities and in that sense reduce their success) and their sons will therefore be less likely to be highly attractive, highly sought after men.  

Gangestad and Simpson actually tested this theory and found that women who rated themselves as more sociosexually unrestricted did tend to have more sons than daughters compared to more restricted women. These tended to be small effects, which is understandable considering that random factors beyond the mother’s control substantially influence the child’s sex. However, based on their estimates they claimed that individuals with an extremely unrestricted orientation (for the stats minded, two standard deviations above the mean) would be expected to produce about 50% more sons than individuals at the other extreme of restrictedness (that is, two standard deviations below the mean).

Based on the foregoing, it might be concluded that porn performers are for the most part people who have inherited tendencies to extreme sociosexuality and that the payoff from an evolutionary perspective is that the men get to mate with many women and that the women get to mate with highly reproductively successful men and therefore have the opportunity to pass these men’s genes onto their sons. As far as I know, no studies have surveyed whether female porn stars have more sons than daughters compared to other women, but if Gangestad and Simpson’s theory is correct we would expect there to be a noticeable difference.

At this point, one might object that the idea that women can influence what sex their children are seems rather silly, as the child’s sex is determined by chromosomes on the father’s sperm. Fortunately, for our theory so far, research has found evidence that some women actually do seem to influence the sex of their children to an extent. Studies have found for example that women high on the personality trait of interpersonal dominance tend to have more sons than daughters compared to less dominant women (Grant, 1992; Grant & France, 2001). Dominance in women is associated with heightened testosterone levels, and there is evidence that maternal testosterone levels (in humans as well as other mammals) can influence the child’s sex in favour of conceiving a male (Grant, 2007). (Many lay people are surprised to learn that women’s bodies produce testosterone at all, but this is actually perfectly normal for women. Where men differ from women is that their testosterone levels are many times higher.)   

Furthermore to this, interpersonal dominance in both men and women is associated with having more sexual partners (Markey & Markey, 2007). Therefore, I would predict that female porn actresses are probably not only higher in sociosexuality, but also more interpersonally dominant compared to other women and have higher testosterone levels. Heightened levels of testosterone during foetal development have also been linked to bisexuality in females. Additionally, bisexual women tend to be higher in sociosexuality compared to heterosexual women and lesbians (Schmitt, 2007). Female porn stars were found to predominantly identify as bisexual, although it was not clear in the study if they considered themselves bisexual mainly due to the requirements of their work in the pornography industry, or if they had always considered themselves this way. There does seem to be a pattern emerging here that might suggest that high testosterone levels may be a key feature that underlies a number of characteristics that may be common in female porn actresses. Only further research will determine whether these conjectures are accurate.

This article has previously appeared on my blog Unique - Like Everybody Else at Psychology Today. 

Further reading:

The Personalities of Porn Stars (a follow-up to the present article)

Follow me on Facebook, Google Plus, or Twitter.

© Scott McGreal. Please do not reproduce without permission. Brief excerpts may be quoted as long as a link to the original article is provided. 

References

Gangestad, S. W., & Simpson, J. A. (1990). Toward an Evolutionary History of Female Sociosexual Variation. Journal of Personality, 58(1), 69-96. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1990.tb00908.x

Grant, V. J. (1992). The measurement of dominance in pregnant women by use of the simple adjective test. Personality and Individual Differences, 13(1), 99-102. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(92)90225-E

Grant, V. J. (2007). Could maternal testosterone levels govern mammalian sex ratio deviations? Journal of Theoretical Biology, 246(4), 708-719. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2007.02.005

Grant, V. J., & France, J. T. (2001). Dominance and testosterone in women. Biological Psychology, 58(1), 41-47. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0301-0511(01)00100-4

Griffith, J. D., Adams, L. T., Hart, C. L., & Mitchell, S. (2012). Why Become a Pornography Actress? International Journal of Sexual Health, 24(3), 165-180. doi: 10.1080/19317611.2012.666514

Griffith, J., Mitchell, S., Hammond, B., Gu, L., & Hart, C. (2012). A Comparison of Sexual Behaviors and Attitudes, Self-Esteem, Quality of Life, and Drug Use Among Pornography Actors and a Matched Sample International Journal of Sexual Health, 24 (4), 254-266 DOI: 10.1080/19317611.2012.710183

Griffith JD, Mitchell S, Hart CL, Adams LT, & Gu LL (2012). Pornography Actresses: An Assessment of the Damaged Goods Hypothesis. Journal of sex research PMID: 23167939

Markey, P. M., & Markey, C. N. (2007). The interpersonal meaning of sexual promiscuity. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(6), 1199-1212. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2007.02.004

Schmitt, D. P. (2007). Sexual Strategies Across Sexual Orientations. Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, 18(2-3), 183-214. doi: 10.1300/J056v18n02_06

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[1] It should be acknowledged that the same individual may alternate between different sexual strategies at different times in his or her life. However, in order to keep things clearer I will focus here on stable strategies a person may specialise in.

[2] In the evolutionary psychology literature, men of the unrestricted type are referred to as ‘cads’ while men of the restricted type are referred to as ‘dads’. Apparently there is a third category of men who combine high physical attractiveness with high willingness to commit to family life who are known as ‘brads’ after Brad Pitt. These men are thought to be quite rare though sadly.