School of Communication Studies Research

Thank you for your interest in research being conducted by doctoral student Java Murniadi in the Kent State University School of Communication Studies. Murniadi's research project is titled Making Religious and Relationship Identities Salient Using Anti-Pornography Messages.

According to recent research, pornography is consumed by 66 percent of four U.S. males view pornography on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, excessive pornography use has been linked to problems in related to sexual health, mental health and relationship/marital dissatisfaction. This new study out of the School of Communication Studies at Kent State University is investigating how to design fear appeal messages to reduce excessive Internet pornography use. In the past, health-related fear appeal messages relied on physical or health threats, but fear appeal messages can also use social and religious threats to reduce risky behavior such as viewing Internet pornography.  In this study, the researchers are comparing the effects of health, social and religious fear appeal messages in reducing pornography consumption.
 
The study will focus on Christian men in a romantic relationship so that all three types of appeals (health, relational and religious) can be tested at the same time. Although many major religions prohibit pornography use, Christian men were chosen because in northeast Ohio they are the easiest to reach and survey as a group. Future studies may include men and women from other religious groups.

Fox 8 News aired a story about Murniadi's research on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015. Watch the news coverage online.