Research about commitment in romantical relationship and porn

[diogenes7]

Hey Guys,
At the moment i'm trying to process Gary Wilson's Book "Your Brain on Porn".
On page 23 he mentions the following:

A 2012 study found that when participants tried to abstain from porn use for three weeks, they reported higher levels of relationship commitment.

The study, to which he is reffering to is this one:

N. Lambert, S. Negash, T. Stillman, and F. Fincham, “A Love That Doesn’t Last: Pornography Consumption and Weakened Commitment to One’s Romantic Partner,” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, vol. 31, pp. 410–438, Apr. 2012.

(You can find the full text on research gate)


In this study, there is an experiment about the influence of pornographical abstinence on relationship commitment. In this experiment one testgroup had to abstain from porn-consumption for three weeks, while another testgroup had to abstain from their favourite food but were still allowed to consume pornography.
As far as i understand the study, these are the results:

Testgroup 1, which abstained from pornography:
Level of relationship commitment before the abstinence: 72,12 %
Level of relationship commitment after the abstinence: 63,1 %

Testgroup 2, which abstained from their favourite food but continued consuming porn:
Level of relationship commitment before the abstinence: 61,5%
Level of relationship commitment after the abstinence: 30,4 %

For me, this result doesn't make any sense! If the consumption of porn would harm the relationship commitment the why did the level of relationship commitment lowered during the abstinence of pornography?

I have to admit that english is not my first language and therefore i have my difficulites with interpreting this study! I would really be grateful, if somebody with a better understanding of the english language and maybe with a psychological or statistical backround could check this study and tell me if i'm wrong with my conclusions.
The overall-study i'm reffering to is the study mentioned above, in specific study 3 (or experiment 3) in this study.

Looking forward to an informative discussion or explanation about this specific topic.

 

[palindromo]

Testgroup 1, which abstained from pornography:
Level of relationship commitment before the abstinence: 72,12 %
Level of relationship commitment after the abstinence: 63,1 %

Testgroup 2, which abstained from their favourite food but continued consuming porn:
Level of relationship commitment before the abstinence: 61,5%
Level of relationship commitment after the abstinence: 30,4 %

From a superficial look i think the test is before and after the abstinence , as written . Not during.
Like they did abstinence , and than they resumed their habits for some days.
To be sure you should read the section '' Method '' of this report.

 

[diogenes7]

From a superficial look i think the test is before and after the abstinence , as written . Not during.
Like they did abstinence , and than they resumed their habits for some days.
To be sure you should read the section '' Method '' of this report.

Thank you for your quick answer.
I've now read the method part for a dozen of times and can't agree with you. Even though the study doens't mention when the testings took part, it would me only make sense if Time 1 is before the abstinence (either of food or of porn) and Time 2 is directly after the three Weeks of abstinence. Could you cite the part of the study, in which they mentioned that the testgroups continued their regular porn consumption before getting asked about their level of commitment at Time 2?

Down below i've cited the results of the experiment:
There are two parts, which make me perplex:

1) The level of commitment halved (!) in the group, which had to abstain from their favourite food but continued their regular consumption of porn during this three weeks

2) The level of commitment also dropped in the group, which had to abstain from porn for three weeks
Before the abstinece: M= 72.12%
After (during?) the abstinece: M= 63.01%


Effect of Pornography on Commitment.
Men and women were distributed almost equally between conditions (which occurred by
chance). We found no interaction between gender and condition, F < 1, p > .05.
We then tested to ensure that there were no unexpected differences between the groups in initial level of commitment;
participants in the abstain from pornography condition did not report a higher percentage chance of being with their partner in the future (M = 72.12%, SD = 33.54%) than those in the pornography consumption condition (M = 61.50%, SD = 36.38%), F (1, 18) = .48, p = .50, η2 p = .03.
Finally, we tested our hypothesis that abstaining from pornography for three weeks would affect participants’ commitment toward
their partners even when controlling for baseline scores of commitment. As expected, participants in the pornography consumption
condition reported a lower percentage chance of being with their partners in the future (M = 30.40%, SD = 36.65%) than those in the
abstain from pornography condition (M = 63.01%, SD = 35.84%), F(1, 17) = 5.05, p < .05, η2 p=.23.
These results held when controlling for gender, F (1, 16) = 4.37, p = .05, η2 p = .22,


And again i have to apologise for my bad english and i really appreciate your help.
I want to make sure, that i understand this study right because this kind of study is really valuable.
Because it cut out the consumption of pornography it could prove the consequences of porn consumption.
In additional it also cuts out the effect of self control, which could also have a postive influence on level of commitment in a relationship.