Original title: Immersive affordances and problematic consumption in virtual reality erotic content use: extending a Cognitive-Behavioral Model
Intikhab Ahmad, Qamar Abbas, Farrukh Shahzad, Jing He +2 · September 2026
Most ideas about unhealthy technology use were made for regular flat screens, not virtual reality (VR). Virtual reality feels much more real and surrounding, which might change how habits form. Researchers wanted to know what drives problematic virtual reality erotic content consumption. They tested four personal motivations, such as seeking pleasure, curiosity, thrill-seeking, and confidence using virtual reality gear. They looked at how these personal traits influence two middle steps: the feeling of truly being inside the virtual world, and mental satisfaction from the experience. These two virtual experiences then lead to problematic use habits. The researchers found that seeking pleasure was the strongest driver of both feeling present and feeling satisfied. Mental satisfaction was the biggest direct push toward problematic use. Finally, having a strong habit made the feeling of being inside the virtual world drive problematic use even more powerfully.
Imagine you are at a movie theater watching a film that feels so real you forget you are in a seat. You get so absorbed that you lose track of time and skip dinner. Now imagine that the same film also gives you a deep sense of satisfaction, like finishing a great book. Both the feeling of being there and the feeling of satisfaction can make you want to watch again and again, but they work through different parts of your mind. In this paper, the researchers show that in virtual reality erotic content, the sense of presence and the cognitive satisfaction are separate pathways that each lead to problematic use, and that habit makes the presence pathway even stronger.
For the growing number of people using virtual reality for erotic content, this research shows that two separate experiences—feeling present in the virtual world and feeling mentally satisfied—each independently contribute to problematic use. This means platform designers and therapists need to address both pathways, not just one. The findings also suggest that habit amplifies the risk from presence but not from satisfaction, pointing to targeted intervention points.
The study uses a cross-sectional design, meaning it captures a single moment in time and cannot prove that one thing causes another. The sample is limited to 380 active VR erotic content consumers, so results may not apply to all VR users or other types of VR content. Additionally, the measures are self-reported, which can be biased.
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Immersive affordances and problematic consumption in virtual reality erotic content use: extending a Cognitive-Behavioral Model — Intikhab Ahmad, Qamar Abbas, Farrukh Shahzad et al. — Scientific Reports — doi:10.1038/s41598-026-63681-y
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.