Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Chart of the Day: Google Searches and Political Leanings

From Wonkblog:

Specifically, Cara C. MacInnis and Gordon Hodson of Brock University found that residents of more religious and more politically conservative states -- often in the South -- are more likely to Google things like ‘‘sex,’’ ‘‘gay sex,’’ ‘‘porn,’’ ‘‘xxx’’, ‘‘free porn,’’ and ‘‘gay porn" than their peers in more secular states. The study, published this month in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, analyzed state-level Google Trends data for 2011 and 2012, and combined it with measures of religiosity and political conservatism from Gallup surveys....
The authors look at two different groups: political conservatives and religious conservatives. Political conservatism was associated specifically with an increased interest in sexually explicit images.
On the other hand, religious conservatives-- measured by the share of residents who say religion is important in their lives -- are highly correlated with searching for sex online, but not necessarily "non-traditional" sex. The study notes: "It may be that these 'sex' searches were conducted with the intention of delivering 'traditional' sexual content (e.g., information regarding monogamous, married, heterosexual sex)."....
The study's findings comport with previous research. In 2009, for instance, a Harvard researcher discovered a significant correlation between social conservatism and subscriptions to online porn sites at the state level.
You generally don't hear about liberals being found dead in wetsuits fully involved with dildos, but that is probably just because the liberal media doesn't report it.

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