Development and Initial Validation of a Psychometric Tool to Assess Moral Incongruence in Pornography Viewing

The widespread accessibility of online pornography has generated substantial research, yet many aspects remain underexplored, especially within the context of moral incongruence, which is defined as a tension between one’s actions and moral beliefs. This study aims to address a significant gap in the existing research, which frequently overlooks the subtle influences of cultural and diversity factors on pornography viewing. Specifically, it aims to develop and validate a psychometric tool to comprehensively assess moral incongruence across four domains: Religious Conflicts (RC), Gender Conflicts (GC), Sexual Orientation Conflicts (SC), and Societal/Cultural Conflicts (CC). A total of 550 U.S. participants, recruited from Amazon MTurk, were involved in the study, with 275 randomly assigned to each condition for the two-phase validation process. Exploratory factor analyses in the initial sample revealed a higher-order factor structure and clear four-factor simple structures, while reliability analyses demonstrated strong internal consistency, with corrected item-total correlations ranging from .70 to .94 and Cronbach's Alpha values between .92 and .98 across subscales. Confirmatory factor analysis in the validation sample replicated the higher-order construct of "Moral Conflicts" related to pornography use, along with four lower-order dimensions (RC, GC, SC, and CC). All items loaded significantly onto their respective latent variables, with factor loadings ranging from .67 to .94, demonstrating strong and reliable indicators. Raykov's ρ coefficients indicated excellent reliability for RC (ρ = .95) and SC (ρ = .83) and moderate reliability for GC (ρ = .75) and CC (ρ = .76). Content validity was strong, with 93.3% of RC items, 100% of GC and CC items, and 71.4% of SC items receiving excellent ratings from expert judges. Convergent validity was established for the higher- and lower-order constructs, showing significant correlations with the Problematic Pornography Use Scale and the Pornographic Problematic Consumption Scale (correlations ranging from .12 to .54). Divergent validity was demonstrated through negative correlations with the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (ranging from -.22 to -.03). Steiger’s tests confirmed that convergent validity correlations were significantly stronger than divergent correlations, except for the GC subscale. The final 36-item MIPV demonstrated strong psychometric properties, including high reliability and validity, supporting its use in future research on moral incongruence. These findings contribute to the development of targeted interventions for individuals facing moral conflicts related to pornography, particularly by considering the influence of diverse cultural backgrounds and beliefs.