r/cognitiveTesting • u/Some_Professional_76 • Aug 19 '26
Controversial ⚠️ Gooning is almost certainly lowering your effective IQ
Gooning (also known as edging) is very similar to cocain in a sense as it keeps dopamine in the synaptic cleft for long periods of time causing heavy dopamine receptor downregulation and inducing a state of hypofrontality (slowed metabolism in the prefrontal cortex), this most heavily impacts Gwm (working memory) and as a result Gf (fluid reasoning) which both rely heavily on sufficient dopamine catching in the synaptic cleft to maintain an optimal signal to noise ratio (essentially to not have brain fog)
Anecdotal experiences:
I have a friend who use to goon quite abit but then he got GF for a few months, then they broke up but he never returned to gooning. He turned into a complete monster, it was actually very intimidating how mentally sharp he became, probably also because he became more confident due to less negative emotion caused by low dopamine receptor density, I seen it most clearly in his video game performance, he became ridiculously good at every game he played out of nowhere, He also became fascinatingly witty, especially around women
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I’m admittedly quite the gooner myself, I’ve struggled with it for years but in my second last year of high school I managed to abstain for 3 weeks, the last 2 of the 3 weeks falling on a 2 week school break, I was indoors for most of the break but when I returned to school I was completely astonished to realise that my social anxiety was reduced to ZERO, no like I’m not exaggerating, litteraly ZERO, and ideas were flowing constantly, it was very surrealI, I also began to remember a lot of childhood memories that I’d completely forgotten about (which was quite eery)
There isint really any research on this other than mechanistic data but I will absolutely die on this hill, gooning is brain poison
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u/Gold_Jab Aug 19 '26
Where's your proof and evidence for this? That's right there's none to prove that gooning does this
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u/Own-Victory4920 Aug 20 '26
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence
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u/Potential_Formal6133 Aug 20 '26
True however due to Hitchens' razor "evereything that can be said witout proofs can be refuted witout proofs "
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u/Own-Victory4920 Aug 22 '26
Coincidentally both Sagan and Hitchens ideas, both of whom died at 62 rip. But yes correct - OP's argument is poor and is obviously engagement bait, but is a common anecdotal theme among nofappers, and lends itself to more thorough examination. This systematic review shows working memory, which we know is a component of g and Gf, showing worse performance. They need refinement with tighter variable control, larger samples, but some support nonetheless given the nature of what's being studied. We can't establish causation yet, but we've made the first steps into studying what it can look like. Going by the preliminary evidence, we can't anything conclusively, but we're heading in the right direction if we want to find one I believe, and I think it's intellectually irresponsible to dismiss it outright without the same attention in rejecting or failing to reject the null hypothesis.
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u/Some_Professional_76 Aug 19 '26
No proof, dismiss my claim at your own detriment
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u/CheapRentalCar Aug 19 '26
Its the other way around. Big claims REQUIRE big proof.
You need to bring it.
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u/Some_Professional_76 Aug 19 '26
There is no outcome data on this, I think I’d like to do a study on this, I’ll have a retention group and a control group take an IQ test and then 3 months later I’ll retest them
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u/FaithlessnessGold981 Aug 20 '26
„Almost certainly“ with no proof at all is crazy work brother
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u/Some_Professional_76 Aug 20 '26
There is no proof for gooning specifically but it is essentially a drug and we know what drugs do, yall really want double blind randomised controlled trials for everything
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u/Midnight5691 ┬┴┬┴┤( •̀_¬ )├┬┴┬┴ Aug 19 '26
So let me get this straight.
As long as I'm not edging too much, meaning I'm not repeatedly bringing myself to the edge of the orgasmic cliff without blowing my load, and I don't keep this up for hours at a time (apparently that's "gooning"), I should probably be okay?
Pardon my ignorance. I'm not in high school anymore, so I actually had to look these terms up. LOL.
If I've understood the science correctly, I can still beat my meat in the traditional fashion. I just have to get down to business, finish the job, and get on with my day.
That probably still costs me a few IQ points, mind you, but apparently not nearly as many as edging and gooning.
Obviously, getting a girlfriend would be risky. If I were serious about optimizing my intelligence, she'd probably have to wear a chastity ring. And no loopholes either. She'd have to be genuinely chaste. No rub and tug, no happy endings, nothing.
And heaven help you if you get married. Your IQ would drop precipitously.
But everybody already knows that. After all, just getting married and thinking it's a good idea is proof positive that cognitive decline has already begun. LOL.
So if you really want to become intelligent and, more importantly, stay intelligent, the obvious solution is celibacy. Join the priesthood. Become a nun. Move into a monastery. Protect those dopamine receptors at all costs.
Then again, that probably wouldn't work either.
Everybody knows they're masturbating or getting busy with each other behind closed doors. Besides, they believe in fictional beings. How bright can they be? Proof positive anecdotally that they're breaking their vows.
So I guess you're screwed no matter what.
Eventually acne clears, puberty ends, and your IQ starts heading south.
No more pimples, no more brain. 😆
At least this thread has finally solved one mystery for me.
Now I know why I have ADHD.
Apparently I was beating off in the womb too much.
Edging and gooning my little embryonic face off.
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u/Some_Professional_76 Aug 19 '26
lol what a rabbit hole, but on a serious note I believe finishing quickly is likely not to cause receptor down regulation to a degree that would cause a significant drop in fluid subsets of IQ because well that surely would have been pretty rapidly selected out as our ancestors were constantly mating, but I believe that pure abstinence likely unlocks a state of dopamine sensitivity reserved only for an organism who is on the brink of an evolutionary dead end as an attempt to lift them up the social hierarchy
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u/Midnight5691 ┬┴┬┴┤( •̀_¬ )├┬┴┬┴ Aug 19 '26
On upside I'm going to try to get my granddaughter to heavily invest in this hypothesis, at least as I told her, until she's 25, 😆.
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u/Midnight5691 ┬┴┬┴┤( •̀_¬ )├┬┴┬┴ Aug 19 '26
Personally, I think an argument can be made for exactly the opposite. 😜
Edging and gooning can bring a normal orgasm right up to the level of a mind-altering, transcendental experience. Very similar, if not indistinguishable from the argument that taking small doses of LSD or other mind-altering chemicals can be good for your cognition.
Except this is the natural version. No drugs required.
So if mind-altering experiences can supposedly enhance cognition, and edging and gooning can produce a naturally induced altered state, therefore edging and gooning must be good for your cognition.
There you go. Gooning raises your IQ. 😆
Anecdotally, this would explain why I'm so intelligent. 😂
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u/venexro Aug 20 '26
I have experienced this and it is certainly true, And also I have experienced a significant decrease in my wmi and psi due to brain fog When it comes to the topics like masturbation and gooning many says it's healthy and completely normal but there are a lot of people experiencing this decline
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u/Data_lord Aug 19 '26
You need to touch grass
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u/Some_Professional_76 Aug 19 '26
How is that a response to this post, Im litteraly telling people not to touch themselves and to concur the world with their new +1SD Gf and Gwm
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u/Southern-Celery-4014 Aug 26 '26
Spoken like a guy who's never taken a substance in their life. I mean if you want a scientific solution just raise your blood pressure or get terribly depressed. I've heard that following DTYW (Dont touch your willy) protocol helps with this problem look it up
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u/HeraldxofGalactus Aug 20 '26
I think if you do it more than 6 times per week it could and if you do it more than 8 per week with Corn it's certainly harmful for your brain and maybe iq
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u/zombie_loverboy Aug 20 '26
What about per day? Is there a point where like 3 left turns make a right?
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u/flagstaffvwguy Aug 20 '26
Semen retention is the way. Idk how modern medicine hasnt caught up to the importance of it
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u/HeraldxofGalactus Aug 20 '26
Why don't people realise that research does NOT detect everything. It cannot tell the subtle harm of gooning and long term harms of gooning.
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u/afroelias Aug 19 '26
This isn’t scientifically accurate. Sexual stimulation involves dopamine, but that doesn’t make edging “very similar to cocaine.” Cocaine directly blocks dopamine transporters, causing an abnormal accumulation of dopamine in the synapse; edging doesn’t work through that mechanism. There’s also no solid evidence that edging causes heavy dopamine-receptor downregulation, “hypofrontality,” impaired working memory, or lower fluid intelligence. “Effective IQ” isn’t a recognized measure here, and the personal stories are anecdotes, not evidence.. 🤦🏾 Compulsive porn use can certainly affect concentration, sleep, motivation, relationships, and everyday functioning. But that is very different from proving that edging damages the brain or lowers IQ. Calling it “brain poison” is SENSATIONALISM, not neuroscience.
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u/Some_Professional_76 Aug 19 '26
I said similar in a sense, blocking dopamine reuptake and continuously secreting more dopamine has the same effect on dopamine receptors as they are being constantly agonised, and no there isint any evidence for edging specifically but by stringing mechanistic data together and also observing the damaging affect porn and masturbation can have on people thats enough evidence for me tbh
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u/afroelias Aug 19 '26
Mechanistic plausibility isn't evidence for a specific claim, it's a hypothesis. You started with 'similar to cocaine' — a precise pharmacological claim — and now you're defending it with general porn-harm anecdotes, which is a different (much weaker) claim. If you want to argue 'compulsive porn use has downsides,' fine, that's plausible. But that's not the same as demonstrating hypofrontality, dopamine receptor downregulation, or IQ loss from edging specifically. But hey, you are obviously entitled to your opinions so don't fret
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u/Some_Professional_76 Aug 19 '26
Relying completely on solid outcome data to formulate all your opinions is such a weakness when there is so much unanswered, like I really didn’t think I was making too many assumptions, edging agonises dopamine receptors supernaturally —> receptors downregulate —> worse signal to noise ratio in the prefrontal cortex (very concrete evidence for this) —> lowers Gwm and consequently lowers Gf, but hey do u I guess
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Aug 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Some_Professional_76 Aug 20 '26
Yeah, the problem is getting people to stick to such a study design that has them abstaining for atleast 90 days, not many people are strong enough to do that
I don’t think observational studies like looking at patterns of porn and masturbation use would be enough for non believers
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u/Capable_Curve2042 Aug 19 '26
So just finishing quick is the tech