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."
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.
© 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
