“If this turns me on, does that mean I actually want it?”
Not necessarily. Research on fantasies already shows that erotic imagination does not automatically correspond to real-life preferences or behaviour.
Porn adds another layer: rather than creating the fantasy ourselves, we are responding to a ready-made visual stimulus. The erotic element may be a particular person, the intensity, a power dynamic, novelty, taboo, the camera angle or something that cannot really be separated from the scene as a whole.
A real-life decision, meanwhile, includes things the screen never asks us to consider: our own boundaries, safety, pain, jealousy, risk, another person’s wishes and how we might feel afterward.
So erotic interest and the desire to enact a scene are not simply two points on the same scale.
Sometimes the most accurate conclusion from a porn preference is rather boring: this content happened to be sexually stimulating to my brain.
Not every erection or flash of arousal needs to become sworn testimony about our true life plans.