A new study found religious people are hypocritical about porn

No doubt more than a couple of men have downplayed their porn-watching habits once in a while.

But there's one section of society who are really telling fibs when it comes to their porn consumption habits.

Researchers from the University of Oklahoma analysed data of more than 2,000 Americans from the 2006 Portraits of American Life Study, and found that religious men are more likely to think watching porn is immoral, then watch it anyway.

The study reports that men who attend church and pray more often are more likely to think pornography is “always morally wrong,” however, 10% of these men watched porn in the last year.

According to the study, "Not practising What You Preach," the religions most likely to be hypocritical in this way were Evangelism and other sectarianism Protestantism

This is despite the fact that Evangelical Protestants were approximately two-and-a-half times more likely than those without a religion to view porn viewing as morally wrong.

The paper concludes that being committed to a religion may influence men to appear to oppose pornography more than they really do.

The study, published dn the Journal of Sex Research states:

Religious commitment and affiliation with theological conservatism may influence Americans (primarily men) to oppose pornography more strongly in principle than reflected in actual practice.

While religiously committed and theologically conservative Americans are generally less likely to view pornography than others, the difference is often not as great or consistent as one might suppose given their strong moral stance.

Researcher Samuel L Perry told PsyPost:

My suspicions were confirmed that even though evangelical Protestants had the strongest, negative moral views about pornography, they weren’t any different from ‘unaffiliated’ Americans in their likelihood to report viewing porn, once other factors were controlled for.

There was no evidence to suggest that religious women were more likely to think porn was morally wrong while still viewing it.

More: A worrying number of people are watching porn at work