Gary Wilson

Gary Bruce Wilson (May 12, 1956 – May 20, 2021) was an American writer and anti-pornography campaigner.

Biography Wilson was a writer who lived in Ashland, Oregon. Together with his wife, Marnia Robinson, he was an instructor of karezza, and the couple shared an antipathy towards orgasms. He became widely known from his 2012 TEDx talk entitled "The Great Porn Experiment" in which he argued exposure to pornography changes brain chemistry. Four years after the site's launch, he published the book Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction, on the same topic and had it translated into Arabic, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Japanese, and Russian.

Wilson argued, counter to relevant experts in the subject, that porn addiction is a public health issue, and said it led to negative effects such as depression and erectile dysfunction. According to Jason Winters, a lecturer on human sexuality in the department of psychology at the University of British Columbia "There is no research showing that Internet pornography causes mental disorders — none". Wilson's material prominently undergirds the internet fads "NoFap" and "No Nut November", with his TED-X talk often linked in relevant fora in spite of the note posted by TED at the top of the recording: “This talk contains several assertions that are not supported by academically respected studies in medicine and psychology. While some viewers might find advice provided in this talk to be helpful, please do not look to this talk for medical advice.” According to historian Brian M. Watson, Wilson "with no scientific training or background ...has made a career peddling pseudoscience."

"He has no scientific or academic qualification and has never published any peer-reviewed research anywhere in the world."

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Paula Hall has praised Wilson's insights about addiction.

This gist of his argument is the Coolidge effect (desensitization due to seeing many new naked bodies), but scholars have expressed doubts that it applies to humans.

Wilson died by suicide on May 20, 2021, after years of illness.

Publications