The great porn experiment | Gary Wilson | TEDxGlasgow — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Transcriber: Maciek Sterkowicz Reviewer: Capa Girl
2. 0:07Inspired by the last talker
3. 0:09I'm going to have a little song about Internet porn.
4. 0:12No, just kidding.
5. 0:15The widespread use of Internet porn is one of the fastest moving
6. 0:19most global experiments ever unconsciously conducted.
7. 0:23Nearly every young guy with an Internet access
8. 0:26becomes an eager test subject.
9. 0:30Canadian researcher Simon Lajeunesse found
10. 0:32that most boys seek pornography by age 10.
11. 0:36Driven by a brain that is suddenly fascinated by sex.
12. 0:41Now, users perceive Internet porn as far more compelling
13. 0:45than porn of the past.
14. 0:46Why is that?
15. 0:48Unending novelty.
16. 0:50In this Australian experiment,
17. 0:52it's not mere nudity but novelty that gets arousals skyrocketing.
18. 0:57Subjects watch 22 porn displays. See that spike?
19. 1:01That's where the researchers switch to porn
20. 1:04the guys hadn't seen before.
21. 1:06What happened? Their erections and their brains fired up.
22. 1:11Why all the excitement?
23. 1:13Mother nature likes to keep a male fertilizing willing females
24. 1:17as long as any new ones are around.
25. 1:19In that top line the ram,
26. 1:22he needs more and more time to make with the same old ewe.
27. 1:28But if you keep switching females - the bottom line - well she's not the same.
28. 1:37He can get the job done in 2 minutes flat
29. 1:40and keep going until he's utterly exhausted.
30. 1:43This is known as the Coolidge effect.
31. 1:46Without the Coolidge effect there would be no Internet porn.
32. 1:51This old mammalian program, the Coolidge effect, perceives
33. 1:54each novel female on a guy's screen as a genetic opportunity.
34. 2:02To keep a guy fertilizing the screen his brain releases
35. 2:06the "go get it" neurochemical dopamine for each novel mate or image.
36. 2:11Eventually the ram will tire
37. 2:13but as long as the guy can keep clicking
38. 2:15he can keep going and so will his dopamine.
39. 2:18With internet porn a guy can see more hot babes in 10 minutes
40. 2:22than his ancestors could see in several lifetimes.
41. 2:27The problem is he has a hunter-gather brain.
42. 2:31A heavy user brain rewires itself to this genetic bonanza
43. 2:37so it carefully becomes associated with this porn harem.
44. 2:44Such behaviours that are associated with this are being alone,
45. 2:48voyeurism, clicking, searching, multiple tabs
46. 2:52fast-forwarding, constant novelty, shock and surprise.
47. 2:57As one young guy once asked:
48. 2:59Are we the first generation to masturbate left handed?
49. 3:04Now, real sex, in contrast, is courtship, touching,
50. 3:09being touched, smells, pheromones, emotional connection,
51. 3:13interaction with a real person.
52. 3:17Now, what happens when our guy finally gets with a real mate.
53. 3:23Well, researchers don't know much about the effects
54. 3:26of Internet porn for several reasons.
55. 3:29In 2009, when Lajeunesse tried to study porn'’s impact
56. 3:34he couldn't find any college age males who weren't using it.
57. 3:39So the first serious dilemma is that studies have no control groups.
58. 3:45Now, this creates a huge blind spot.
59. 3:48Imagine if all guys started smoking at age 10
60. 3:52and there were no groups that didn't.
61. 3:55We would think that lung cancer is normal for all guys.
62. 3:59Undaunted by his lack of non-users Lajeunesse asked 20 male students:
63. 4:05Is Internet porn affecting you or your attitude towards women?
64. 4:11They answered, "No, I don't think so."
65. 4:14But they've been using it for about a decade then
66. 4:16pretty much non-stop.
67. 4:19This is like asking a fish what it thinks about water?
68. 4:24Which bring us to a second problem.
69. 4:26Researchers haven't asked porn users about the symptoms
70. 4:31Zimbardo described in "The Demise of Guys."
71. 4:35Arousal addiction symptoms are easily mistaken
72. 4:38for such things as ADHD, social anxiety, depression,
73. 4:44concentration problems, performance anxiety,
74. 4:47OCD and a host of others.
75. 4:50Now, healthcare providers often assume that these conditions are primary
76. 4:55perhaps the cause of addiction but never really the result of an addiction.
77. 5:01As a consequence they often medicate these guys
78. 5:05without really inquiring about if they have an Internet addiction.
79. 5:11Guys never realise that they could overcome these
80. 5:13symptoms simply by changing their behaviour.
81. 5:18Now, the third problem is it's hard to believe that
82. 5:21sexual activity can cause addiction because sex is healthy.
83. 5:26But Internet porn is not sex.
84. 5:28Internet porn is as different from real sex
85. 5:32as today’s video games are from checkers.
86. 5:36Watching the screen full of naked body parts
87. 5:39won't automatically protect one from arousal addiction.
88. 5:45In this Dutch study - here's the title -
89. 5:48they found that in fact of all activities on the Internet
90. 5:53porn has the most potential to become addictive.
91. 5:57Here's why.
92. 5:58This ancient programme, the reward circuit,
93. 6:00evolved to drive us towards natural rewards
94. 6:04such as sex, bonding and food.
95. 6:09As a consequence extreme versions of natural rewards
96. 6:13have a unique ability to capture us.
97. 6:17For example: high-calorie foods or hot novel babes
98. 6:22give us extra dopamine.
99. 6:24Too much dopamine though can override our natural satiation mechanisms.
100. 6:30For example: give rats unlimited access
101. 6:34to junk food and almost all of them will binge to obesity.
102. 6:39This is also why 4 out of 5 Americans are overweight
103. 6:42and about half of those are obese.
104. 6:45That is addicted to food.
105. 6:47Now, in contrast to natural rewards, drugs such as
106. 6:51cocaine or alcohol only hook about 10% of users
107. 6:55whether they are rats or humans.
108. 6:59This binge mechanism for food or sex was once an evolutionary advantage.
109. 7:06In essence, it is getting it while the getting is good.
110. 7:10Now, you can think of wolves packing away 20 pound of meat per kill
111. 7:14or it's mating season and you're the alpha male.
112. 7:18What if mating season never ends?
113. 7:21All those hits of dopamine can tell your brain to do two things.
114. 7:26First they say, "Man, you've hit the evolutionary jackpot."
115. 7:30Second, they kick in a molecular switch called Delta-FosB.
116. 7:35I know it is a fancy word, but dopamine kicks in Delta-FosB
117. 7:39and that starts to accumulate in the brain's reward circuit.
118. 7:44Now, with excess chronic consumption of drugs or natural rewards,
119. 7:48this build up a Delta-FosB starts to alter the brain
120. 7:52and promotes the cycle of binging and craving.
121. 7:57If the binging continues the Delta-FosB builds up
122. 8:01and it can lead to brain changes seen in all addicts.
123. 8:04So the dominos are excess consumption
124. 8:08excess dopamine, Delta-FosB, brain changes.
125. 8:12One of the first changes is a numbed pleasure response.
126. 8:16It kicks in, and so everyday pleasures really don't satisfy a porn addict.
127. 8:23At the same time other physical changes in the brain
128. 8:26make the brain hyper-reactive to porn.
129. 8:29Everything else in the porn user's life is sort of boring,
130. 8:33but porn is super exciting.
131. 8:35Finally his willpower erodes as his frontal cortex changes.
132. 8:40I can't emphasize this enough.
133. 8:41All addictions share these same brain changes
134. 8:45and the same molecular switch that kicks them in - Delta-FosB.
135. 8:52Now scientists have used brain scans to measure
136. 8:55these changes in drug addicts.
137. 8:57Up-here these scans show a reduced pleasure response in drug addicts.
138. 9:02These and several other changes have also been seen in gambling addicts,
139. 9:06food addicts, very recently in video game addicts
140. 9:11and now in internet addicts.
141. 9:13I apologize for filling up the slide with brain studies.
142. 9:16Just notice the dates.
143. 9:18But I want you to know that they exist.
144. 9:22So far all brain research points only in one direction.
145. 9:27Constant novelty at the click can cause addiction.
146. 9:32We know this because when scientist examined
147. 9:36former Internet addicts they found
148. 9:38that these brain changes were reversing themselves.
149. 9:42Unfortunately, none of these studies isolate porn users,
150. 9:46but they do include them.
151. 9:49Here's the game changer.
152. 9:51At last we have a group of guys who are no longer using Internet porn.
153. 9:55That's right! Heavy users are voluntarily giving it up by the thousands.
154. 10:01These guys are the missing control group in the great porn experiment.
155. 10:07They're showing experts what changing one single variable can do.
156. 10:12I call it "The Resurrection of Guys" as opposed to "the Demise of Guys."
157. 10:16Now, before I continue probably you wanna know
158. 10:18why any porn loving guy in his right mind would give it up.
159. 10:23Two words: erectile dysfunction.
160. 10:27Internet porn is killing young men's sexual performance.
161. 10:31Now, Zimbardo said young guys are flaming out with women,
162. 10:35this survey by Italian neurologists confirms
163. 10:39what we have witnessed over the last few years.
164. 10:45Sexual enhancement drugs often stop working for these guys,
165. 10:49if they ever did,
166. 10:50because the problem isn’'t below the belt where viagra works.
167. 10:54Nor is their problem really psychological.
168. 10:56It's due to physical changes in the brain.
169. 10:59Those addiction related changes.
170. 11:01Their numb brains are sending weaker and weaker signals to their bananas.
171. 11:06(Laughter)
172. 11:08As doctor Foresta says, "It starts with lower reactions to porn sites.
173. 11:13Then there is a general drop in libido,
174. 11:16and in the end it becomes impossible to get an erection.
175. 11:20There are 3 take-aways from this.
176. 11:23First, Foresta is describing a classic addiction process -
177. 11:28gradual desensitization.
178. 11:31Second, Internet porn is qualitatively different from Playboy.
179. 11:36Widespread youthful ED has never been seen before.
180. 11:40And finally ED is often the only symptom that gets these guys' attention.
181. 11:48The question is what less obvious symptoms are they missing?
182. 11:52Most don't figure that out until after they quit.
183. 11:56Here's a guy in his late 20s.
184. 12:00"I've been to psychologists and psychiatrists for the last 8 years...
185. 12:04have been diagnosed with depression, severe social anxiety,
186. 12:08severe memory impairment and a few others.
187. 12:10Have tried Fexer, Ritalin, Xanax, Paxil
188. 12:14dropped out at two different colleges, been fired twice,
189. 12:17used pot to calm my social anxiety.
190. 12:20I've been approached by quite a few women
191. 12:22I guess due to my looks and status
192. 12:25but they quickly flew away due to my incredible weirdness.
193. 12:28I've been a hardcore porn addict since age 14.
194. 12:32For the last 2 years I've been experimenting
195. 12:34and finally realised that porn was an issue.
196. 12:38I stopped it completely 2 months ago.
197. 12:41It has been very difficult but so far incredibly worth it.
198. 12:45I've since quit my remaining medication.
199. 12:48My anxiety is nonexistent.
200. 12:51My memory and focus are sharper than they've ever been.
201. 12:55I feel like a huge "chick magnet" and my ED is gone too.
202. 12:59I seriously think I had a rebirth, a second chance at life."
203. 13:05This is why pockets of guys are peering all over the web - body building sites,
204. 13:10sports sites, pickup artists sites - wherever men congregate.
205. 13:14In essence, they are seeking a neurochemical rebirth.
206. 13:18Here's a group on reddit.com who call themselves "Fapstronauts."
207. 13:22Fapping is slang for solo sex,
208. 13:25but what they really mean is giving up porn.
209. 13:29They've added about 2,000 members since I captured this picture a month ago.
210. 13:35This movement to unhook from porn is growing rapidly.
211. 13:41In fact, groups are springing up all across the web and in Europe too.
212. 13:46But there is a bizarre fly in the ointment.
213. 13:51Guys in the early 20s aren't regaining
214. 13:54their erectile health as quickly as older guys.
215. 13:58How can a 50-year-old get his mojo back quicker then a 20-something?
216. 14:06The answer, even though older guys have been using porn a whole lot longer
217. 14:10they didn't start on today’'s Internet porn.
218. 14:14Now, we know this is a key variable because
219. 14:17the older guys didn'’t start having sexual problems
220. 14:20until after they got high-speed Internet. (Laughter)
221. 14:27Now, today'’s young teens start on high-speed Internet
222. 14:31when their brains are at their peak
223. 14:34of dopamine production and neuroplasticity.
224. 14:37This is also when they are the most vulnerable to addiction,
225. 14:40but there is another risk.
226. 14:43By adulthood teens strengthen heavily used circuits
227. 14:47and prune back unused ones.
228. 14:49So, by age 22 or so a guy's sexual taste can be like deep ruts in his brain.
229. 14:56This can cause panic if a guy has escalated to extreme porn
230. 15:01or porn that no longer matches his sexual orientation.
231. 15:06Fortunately brains are plastic
232. 15:08so his taste can revert once he quits porn.
233. 15:14As a guy returns to normal sensitivity
234. 15:17his brain looks around for the rewards it evolved to see
235. 15:21such as friendly interaction and of course real mates.
236. 15:25Here's one more example of what we hear everyday,
237. 15:29"I feel like the next Sir Isaac Newton or Leonardo da Vinci.
238. 15:33Since I quit a month ago, I've literally:
239. 15:35started a business, taken up piano, been studying French every day,
240. 15:40been programming, drawing, writing, started managing my finances
241. 15:44and I have more awesome ideas than I know what to do with.
242. 15:48My confidence is sky-high.
243. 15:51I already feel like I can talk to any girl!
244. 15:54I am the same guy who took 2,5 extra years to graduate from college
245. 16:00because of procrastination and depression."
246. 16:03I'll conclude with a wish:
247. 16:05I'd like to see Zimbardo's guys
248. 16:08who are wiping out and their caregivers and the experts
249. 16:11listen to the thousands of men who are teaching us
250. 16:15about arousal addiction by escaping it.
251. 16:19Thanks for listening.
252. 16:20(Applause)