Porn Is A Conservative Value

We all know that conservative states have the highest divorce rates, but did you know that they also subscribe to online porn at a higher frequency than average?

Note, a "subscription" as referred to below is a subscription to an online adult entertainment network the author studied for this research.

As shown in Table 4, subscriptions are also more prevalent in states where surveys indicate conservative positions on religion, gender roles, and sexuality. In states where more people agree that “Even today miracles are performed by the power of God” and “I never doubt the existence of God,” there are more subscriptions to this service. Subscriptions are also more prevalent in states where more people agree that “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage” and “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behavior.” Survey results come from the Pew Value Surveys (1987–2007 combined dataset).

I experimented with a number of other variables, but did not find statistically significant results. In the 13 states that forbade sodomy immediately prior to Lawrence v. Texas (2003), subscriptions to this adult entertainment service are more prevalent than in other states, but insignificantly so. Furthermore, I found no significant relationship between subscriptions to this adult entertainment service and presidential voting in 2004, based on poll data by congressional district. However, using individual-level data from a Hitwise sample of ten million anonymized U.S. Internet users, Tancer (2008), finds that adult escort sites are more popular in “blue” states that voted for Gore in 2004, while visitors from the “red” states that voted for Bush in 2004 are more likely to visit wife-swapping sites, adult webcams, and sites about voyeurism. - Benjamin Edelman, "Red (Light) States"

Of course, the lede is buried at the bottom: "...visitors from the “red” states that voted for Bush in 2004 are more likely to visit wife-swapping sites..." Not only higher divorce rates, but a penchant for wife-swapping websites? I wonder if anyone's looked at whether there's a statistically significant correlation there.