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Porn makes men better lovers, a new study suggests.

Previous studies have linked men's pornography habits to problems getting or sustaining erections. However, results from the latest study reveal the opposite: porn could boost sexual performance.

The latest study involved data from 280 male volunteers who reported the average number of hours that they watch erotica. Researchers noted that answers varied from zero to 25 hours.

Study data also included results from 127 participants who had regular partners and completed the International Index of Erectile Function, a survey that asks men to rate their erectile function. Participants were also asked to report their level of sexual arousal after looking heterosexual pornography in the laboratory.

"When we analyzed the data from these prior studies, we found that the men who had watched more sex films at home were more aroused when they watched sex films in the lab," researcher Nicole Prause, an associate research scientist in the Department of Psychiatry in the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, said in a news release.

"While one could object that this was expected since they like sex films, the result is important because clinicians often claim that men get desensitized by watching these films," she added. "They are responding more strongly to very vanilla erotica than the guys for whom the films are more novel. While this association doesn't establish a cause, it proves viewing erotica at home is not desensitizing and perhaps even sensitized the men to respond more strongly."

The latest study also revealed no link between pornography consumption and erectile dysfunction in sexually active men.

"Many clinicians claim that watching erotica makes men unable to respond sexually to 'normal' sexual situations with a partner," Prause said. "That was not the case in our sample."

"While many people think easy access to porn leads to problems in the bedroom, our study suggests the opposite: that erectile dysfunction is most likely caused by the same issues that have been known for some time, such as performance anxiety, poor cardiovascular health, or side-effects from substance abuse," co-researcher Jim Pfaus, a professor in Concordia's Department of Psychology and Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, said in a statement.

The latest study was published in the online journal Sexual Medicine.