Study Says: Citizens In States That Back The Winning Party Search For More Porn After Elections

from the target-those-ads... dept

Wed, Nov 3rd 2010 12:33pm — Mike Masnick

With the Republicans handily winning a whole bunch of House seats in the elections, apparently you can expect the amount of searching for internet porn to increase in the states that voted Republican. Sound ridiculous? Yes, but apparently it's science. On The Media points us to the news of a new study that looked at porn searches before and after elections and found that they tend to increase in states that support the "winning" party. Of course, I'd take these results with a pretty serious grain of salt, but the study's authors note that they're statistically significant. You can read the whole study (pdf) if you'd like. The abstract is:

The current study examined whether or not individuals who vicariously win a competition seek out pornography relatively more often than individuals who vicariously lose a competition. By examining a portion of Google keyword searches during the 2004, 2006 and 2008 US election cycles, the relative popularity of online pornography keywords searches was computed for each state and the District of Columbia the week before and the week after each election. Consistent with the Challenge Hypothesis, following all three election cycles, individuals located in states voting for the winning political party tended to search for pornography keywords relatively more often than individuals residing in states voting for the losing political party.

The "Challenge Hypothesis," if you're unfamiliar with it, is the idea that competition itself increases testosterone in men, and winning a competition increases testosterone even more -- and this includes just witnessing the competition. So, other studies have apparently found increases in testosterone in men watching their favorite sports teams win. So this study looked at whether or not porn searches might act as a proxy for such increased testosterone.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: challenge hypothesis, elections, porn

21 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

weneedhelp (profile), 3 Nov 2010 @ 12:52pm

P P P PORN!!!!!!
:)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Philly Missus, 3 Nov 2010 @ 12:58pm

GO FLYERS!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Free Capitalist (profile), 3 Nov 2010 @ 1:01pm

"I fell like I'm going to rage... Right Now!"

Brian Wilson
Certified Ninja / Order of Mental Assassins
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Free Capitalist (profile), 3 Nov 2010 @ 1:06pm

Re:
Bah... of course it was something more like
"I feel like I need to rage... right now!"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TtfnJohn (profile), 3 Nov 2010 @ 1:07pm

Re: P P P PORN!!!!!!
I'm trying hard to imagine Tea Party porn. (And not come up with a cheap Sarah Palin crack at the same time. Far, far too easy.)

Different breeds of tea copulating in oversized tea bags?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Hephaestus (profile), 3 Nov 2010 @ 1:13pm

Question
Does study say anything about the people in the bible belt?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
weneedhelp (profile), 3 Nov 2010 @ 1:17pm

Re: Re: P P P PORN!!!!!!
Sarah Palin, tea bag... arrrrrghhhhhh!!! Thats it, im done. No more porn for me.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jay (profile), 3 Nov 2010 @ 1:24pm

Re: Question
They started their study there. I'm doubly sure.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TtfnJohn (profile), 3 Nov 2010 @ 1:36pm

Re: Question
Not leafed through the Old Testament recently have you?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
marak (profile), 3 Nov 2010 @ 1:44pm

Re: Re: Question
Leafed through? its where i get all my best porn! :P
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 3 Nov 2010 @ 1:53pm

BEST. STUDY. EVER.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Pickle Monger (profile), 3 Nov 2010 @ 2:04pm

Can't wait
Maybe it's because they can't wait to start getting screwed by politicians they just elected that the thoughts immediately turn to....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Yomamma, 3 Nov 2010 @ 2:15pm

Impeach the Bastards
Probably the sore-losing party trying to find the winners in porn. ...gathering evidence they may have missed before the election.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
colg, 3 Nov 2010 @ 3:08pm

So...

People who's political party wins are a bunch of jackoffs...

I suspected as much...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 3 Nov 2010 @ 3:51pm

This one is a strong contender for next year Ignobil prize.

ps: Independent if this may or may not be real science or be real, but is just to funny.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jesse, 3 Nov 2010 @ 5:30pm

DEMOCRACY EQUALS PRON1!!!!

I think Iran has figured out the right model. Ban anything sexualized and rig the elections so everyone loses.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Pixelation, 3 Nov 2010 @ 5:58pm

I must be winning a lot. ;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
jeffj (profile), 4 Nov 2010 @ 3:37am

p
The people in a winning state use the internet more to read about winning. It's human nature. If the Giants are in a winning season, I want to read more about it. If they are losing I try to avoid it. Same with your candidate losing or winning.
And a large majority of people who use the internet look at porn. THEREFORE people in a winnign state are using the internet more AND they then look at porn so porn usage is up in winning states.
Not rocket science.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
jeffj (profile), 4 Nov 2010 @ 3:38am

p
The people in a winning state use the internet more to read about winning. It's human nature. If the Giants are in a winning season, I want to read more about it. If they are losing I try to avoid it. Same with your candidate losing or winning.
And a large majority of people who use the internet look at porn. THEREFORE people in a winnign state are using the internet more AND they then look at porn so porn usage is up in winning states.
Not rocket science.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michael, 4 Nov 2010 @ 5:40am

Studies?
How do I sign up to get paid to do these kind of "studies"? Is our scientific community so bored with doing things that are actually useful that they are spending their time (and probably my tax dollars) doing this?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
PrometheeFeu (profile), 4 Nov 2010 @ 9:55am

If you look long enough at enough unrelated datasets, you will find a statistically significant correlation eventually. Given the number of people looking at those data sets, it is bound to happen often. That leads to a lot of stupid headlines.
[ link to this | view in thread ]