OnlyFans use and satisfactions with oneself and others (Ji & Li, 2025)

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🎙️ Welcome to "Revise and Resubmit" — the podcast where academic rigor meets real-world relevance, and your weekend curiosity gets the scholarly spark it deserves!

📚 Today’s episode takes us into a digital world where intimacy meets interaction, and comparison might just lead to confidence. This isn’t your usual research paper — no, today we’re diving into a study that dares to ask: What happens when desire, data, and digital culture collide?

🧠 Picture this: You’re scrolling through OnlyFans — not just as a passive observer, but as a participant in a new kind of performance economy. One where you choose, connect, and perhaps… compare. Now what if — instead of feeling worse — that comparison made you feel better?

That’s exactly what researchers Yadong Ji and Yachao Li unpack in their groundbreaking study, “OnlyFans use and satisfactions with oneself and others: The role of upward social comparison,” published in the prestigious journal New Media & Society on June 19, 2025, by none other than SAGE Publications. 🌟

💡 With a sample of 293 users, they challenge the old assumptions about explicit content and self-esteem. Instead of dissatisfaction and disconnection, the research found something surprising — users often experienced increased sexual self-esteem, better relational satisfaction, and even a heightened sense of skill and knowledge. And the catalyst? Upward social comparison — that quiet voice that says, “Maybe I could try that…”

😮 So here’s the question:
When comparison leads not to envy, but to empowerment… are we witnessing a shift in how we understand desire, connection, and digital intimacy?

💌 A huge thank you to Yadong Ji and Yachao Li for this compelling research, and to SAGE Publications for bringing it to light in one of academia’s most prestigious journals.

🎧 Don't forget to subscribe to “Revise and Resubmit” on Spotify and follow our YouTube channel, Weekend Researcher. We’re also available on Amazon Prime and Apple Podcast — because your intellectual curiosity deserves a weekend binge too! 😉

📈🖊️💬 Until next time — keep reading, keep revising, and never stop asking the uncomfortable, the unexpected, the unforgettable questions.

Reference

Ji, Y., & Li, Y. (2025). OnlyFans use and satisfactions with oneself and others: The role of upward social comparison. New Media & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251342235

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