aint dis funny indeed..new study shows dat people in red

**evanovitch** · 03-03-2009, 06:34 PM

Red State Porn Purchasing Power

Red State Porn Purchasing Power
More subscribers to online pornography live in traditionally conservative red states than blue states, according to a study published last week in the American Economic Association's Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Utah leads the country with 5.47 subscribers per 1,000 broadband users, followed by Alaska (5.03) and Mississippi (4.30). California ranked 39th at 2.46.

"The most natural interpretation is that conservatives are buying disproportionately much online adult entertainment," said Benjamin Edelman, the study's author. "Though, to be sure, it's also possible that the minority of liberals in the same regions are the ones making these purchases."

Edelman, an assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, said he adjusted his data to compare states with varying populations and Internet usage, in order to place them all on a level playing field.

Edelman obtained a list of zip codes associated with credit card subscribers from what he described as a "top-10 seller of online adult entertainment" from 2006 to 2008. The company agreed to let Edelman analyze the information if he agreed to keep the company's name anonymous, he said.

The researcher also found a marginally higher rate of porn subscribers in the 27 states that had passed "defense of marriage" amendments to keep same-sex marriages unconstitutional compared to states that had no such laws.

He also observed that fewer subscriptions to the sites were purchased on Sunday than any other day of the week."There seems to be a Sunday effect that is driven by religion," Edelman said, "in particular by religious attendance. In regions where more people reported regularly attending religious services, fewer purchases occur on Sundays."

Edelman was unsure why Utah ranked number one, but he said, "It can be rather difficult to purchase adult entertainment materials in person in Utah. Customers can't find these materials in Utah stores as easily as in, say, San Francisco or New York. As a result, customers seeking this material might need to buy it online instead."

**evanovitch** · 03-03-2009, 06:37 PM

Re: Red State Porn Purchasing Power

Red-state residents buy the most online porn
Jason Cochran
Mar 3rd 2009
A Harvard Business School assistant professor who had access to customer receipts from dozens of adult websites found something titillating: The more conservative and religious a state is, the more likely its residents are to buy Web porn.

As someone who helps big companies like Microsoft and AOL with internet fraud, Benjamin Edelman, Ph.D., had access to two years of credit card data from 2006 to 2008 that included purchase dates and each customer's ZIP code. Using that with existing demographics, he found that of the 10 states where porn is most consumed, eight of them gave their electoral votes to John McCain. Out of the 10 states with the lowest consumption, only four did.

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

The horniest state, by Edelman's count, is Utah, with 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1,000 homes with broadband. (Montana, he reported, was number 50.) States that have passed legislation to ban gay marriage had porn subscription rates that were 11% higher than in states that haven't.

Some media outlets have been quick to point out the statistical difference isn't huge. However, according to Edelman, it's still there. Instantly, pundits on both the left and the right began seizing upon the discovery and undermining it.

Maybe it's hypocrisy, or maybe Utah's preachers are right about sin encroaching from every side. Or maybe Americans like porn in relatively equal measures, but ones who identify as conservative are more likely to live far from cities, requiring them to access their adult entertainment online. The numbers aren't telling.

Regardless, Edelman's figures said that if you're selling web porn to people who profess conservative values, you're more likely to do well. According to the ABC News story, "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 behavior.'"

Edelman did find that where a postal code was more likely to be called home by church-goers, porn subscriptions dropped by a teeny bit on Sunday. So there's tha

**CeaBee** · 03-03-2009, 06:42 PM

Re: Red State Porn Purchasing Power

but yet dem woan let me buy me 40 pon a sunday

aint dis funny indeed..new study shows dat people in red

aint dis funny indeed..new study shows dat people in red

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