Conservative States Purchase More Porn than any Other

[spideyboy_1111]

by Ewen Callaway
Americans may paint themselves in increasingly bright shades of red and blue, but new research finds one thing that varies little across the nation: the liking for online pornography.

A new nationwide study (pdf) of anonymised credit-card receipts from a major online adult entertainment provider finds little variation in consumption between states.

"When it comes to adult entertainment, it seems people are more the same than different," says Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School.

However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

"Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by," Edelman says.

Political divide

Edelman spends part of his time helping companies such as Microsoft and AOL detect advertising fraud. Another consulting client runs dozens of adult websites, though he says he is not at liberty to identify the firm.

That company did, however, provide Edelman with roughly two years of credit card data from 2006 to 2008 that included a purchase date and each customer's postal code.

After controlling for differences in broadband internet access between states – online porn tends to be a bandwidth hog – and adjusting for population, he found a relatively small difference between states with the most adult purchases and those with the fewest.

The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000. "The differences here are not so stark," Edelman says.

Number 10 on the list was West Virginia at 2.94 subscriptions per 1000, while number 41, Michigan, averaged 2.32.

Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.

Old-fashioned values

Church-goers bought less online porn on Sundays – a 1% increase in a postal code's religious attendance was associated with a 0.1% drop in subscriptions that day. However, expenditures on other days of the week brought them in line with the rest of the country, Edelman finds.

Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage.

To get a better handle on other associations between social attitudes and pornography consumption, Edelman melded his data with a previous study on public attitudes toward religion.

States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage," bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. A similar difference emerged for the statement "AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual behaviour."

"One natural hypothesis is something like repression: if you're told you can't have this, then you want it more," Edelman says.

Journal reference: Journal of Economic Perspectives vol 23, p 209 (pdf)

hmmm sounds like repression leads to giving in to temptation :-P

 

[tzarinna]

I've heard condom sells have gone up.... any correlation?

 

[spideyboy_1111]

I've heard condom sells have gone up.... any correlation?

possibly, sex is a great stress relief. Though i do wander if conservative states condom sales have gone up? Since conservative states also seem to be full of people who probably should be using condoms... lol. And no i'm not saying conservatives shouldnt breed... i'm talking more about hicks who tend to have a couple litters.

 

[chaseter]

What idiot pays for porn when you can get it for free???

I also use to work at a bank and a wife called in about an unusual charge on their debit card card and I had to tell her it was for a porn site!!!

 

[Gilpesh]

What idiot pays for porn when you can get it for free???

Well. Conservatives are stupid. [/liberal]

 

[psychocheeseman]

but.. i'm not conservative at all and i watch heaps of porn...

 

[spideyboy_1111]

What idiot pays for porn when you can get it for free???

I also use to work at a bank and a wife called in about an unusual charge on their debit card card and I had to tell her it was for a porn site!!!

Nuff said...

 

[spideyboy_1111]

but.. i'm not conservative at all and i watch heaps of porn...

? lol no one said conservatives are the only porn watchers :-P, there just dumb enough to pay for it.

 

[Sarge 2.0]

There's a lame pun about stimulating the economy that I'm surprised no one has made yet.

 

[Manic]

There's a lame pun about stimulating the economy that I'm surprised no one has made yet.

Looks like conservatives have discovered their own stimulus packages.

 

[LAST CRUSADER]

people who feel like a repressed minority often act in extreem ways. it might be in conservative states but its likely the liberals that are doing the buying.

 

[Majic Walrus]

Conservative states are probably full of conservative people. It doesn't mean that they are the ones buying the porn. I think if I lived in the smack dab center of the bible belt I'd probably want to watch more porn too. It would give me something to do on a Sunday night.

 

[spideyboy_1111]

Conservative states are probably full of conservative people. It doesn't mean that they are the ones buying the porn. I think if I lived in the smack dab center of the bible belt I'd probably want to watch more porn too. It would give me something to do on a Sunday night.

meh the odds that the few liberals are out buying more porn, then states that have alot more porn stores, i find to be kind of stretching it imo.

 

[Majic Walrus]

meh the odds that the few liberals are out buying more porn, then states that have alot more porn stores, i find to be kind of stretching it imo.

I'm just saying that the need for porn is greater in states where it is considered taboo and more repressed.

 

[SuBe]

I don't see the point of this thread.


Ok, states that vote predominately Conservative purchase more porn. Ok.

Conservatives tend to be the "Evil Rich", so 1 + 1 = More money to pay for QUALITY porn?

Just because a State leans right, doesn't mean they don't like to see naked women.

 

[spideyboy_1111]

I don't see the point of this thread.


Ok, states that vote predominately Conservative purchase more porn. Ok.

Conservatives tend to be the "Evil Rich", so 1 + 1 = More money to pay for QUALITY porn?

Just because a State leans right, doesn't mean they don't like to see naked women.

i get high quality HD porn from my computer for free

 

[spideyboy_1111]

I'm just saying that the need for porn is greater in states where it is considered taboo and more repressed.

well that's obviously obvious. My main point is conservatives tend to always "look the other way" when they are breaking there own rules.

 

[SuBe]

Who says that its breaking any rules to purchase porn? Just because someone is Conservative, doesn't mean they are righteous religous zealots.

 

[spideyboy_1111]

Who says that its breaking any rules to purchase porn? Just because someone is Conservative, doesn't mean they are righteous religous zealots.

true, not all conservatives are, but conservatives do seem to be prudes, and you never see liberals protesting a porn shop, or generally having a problem with the ideals.

The whole basis of conservatives is to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change. And to many, Porn shops are against all of there beliefs.

It's very similar imo to all of the "homophobic" republican governmental figures always getting caught having a "gay affair" or priests getting caught with kids. The more you shove something under the rug, the more you're going to act out. Which is why Conservatives tend to get most of the heat for it.

 

[Majic Walrus]

^I can see this. It seems to be true.

 

[SuBe]

true, not all conservatives are, but conservatives do seem to be prudes, and you never see liberals protesting a porn shop, or generally having a problem with the ideals.

The whole basis of conservatives is to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change. And to many, Porn shops are against all of there beliefs.

It's very similar imo to all of the "homophobic" republican governmental figures always getting caught having a "gay affair" or priests getting caught with kids. The more you shove something under the rug, the more you're going to act out. Which is why Conservatives tend to get most of the heat for it.

I understand what you mean. I'm a Libertarian, I don't care what anyone does as long as it doesn't physically harm anyone without their consent. I can see the Prohibitive Nature of things leading to Excessive Behavior (Prohibition, "War on Drugs", Etc). I just don't see the point of making this "HYPOCRAZY!!!1!1!".

 

[spideyboy_1111]

I understand what you mean. I'm a Libertarian, I don't care what anyone does as long as it doesn't physically harm anyone without their consent. I can see the Prohibitive Nature of things leading to Excessive Behavior (Prohibition, "War on Drugs", Etc). I just don't see the point of making this "HYPOCRAZY!!!1!1!".

lol i tend to agree with you. It's just fun reporting stuff like this. I find it a fun fact