Video of University of Bristol students reacting to watching porn gathers attention on YouTube

Video showing the students' reactions racks up almost 200,000 views in just over one week

What do you get when you sit a bunch of students down to watch porn? A whole lot of awkwardness, that’s what.

Students from the University of Bristol have taken part in an experiment to determine how both genders react to watching pornography.

Produced by the university’s TV station, UBTV, a six-minute video showing the students’ reactions while looking through adult sites has been racking up the views on YouTube, capturing emotions ranging from uncontrollable giggling and snickering, to shock and disgust.

Gemma Wilson, production director at UBTV and third-year student at the university, described how it was the male students who were more uncomfortable that the female ones.

According to the Bristol Post, Miss Wilson said UBTV tries to tackle, not just issues which affect the student body, but current issues that affect everyone. She added: “We thought porn would be a good one to do because both men and women have opinions on it.”

Speaking about the split in both sexes, Miss Wilson described how, despite never having seen porn before, the girls “were the ones most funny and relaxed.” However, in comparison, she said two of the male participants were very awkward and didn't speak out at all: “Their body language is very uncomfortable,” she added.

One student who appears in the clip, Amber Roberts, also spoke with the Bristol Post and described how, despite not being one for becoming embarrassed, she did find it “a bit weird.”

Reflecting on the experiment, Miss Roberts said it was a positive experience: “It reveals - when you take it into a public context - people are quite shocked. It takes away the fantasy.”

Speaking with The Independent, Miss Wilson said: “Students have found it really funny, but there are also interesting parts to it - such as the girls reactions who had never seen porn before.

“I think there is something very interesting about placing people in manufactured environments with something that may appear to privately be quite common or routine. It makes people think about the actions more in detail.

“There was really no need for the experiment, merely to entertain and get people involved in the society. People can take from the video what they wish but, fundamentally, it is always good to talk about issues such as porn and relationship with students.”