It's because Mormons are so polite they insist on actually paying for internet porn.

Uhh strange, based on the porn i consume OH should have been somewhere up there.... Oh wait I dont pay for it....guess the list is correct :)

The problem is that he just analyzed subscriber data from an unnamed top 10 seller of online adult entertainment. All that will be relevant to is that particular company, since it is basically a poll. Polls are unreliable, anyway.

Yukonrye: Win.

Any sensible adult can find free pr0nz.

This just in from the Department of Irony: It's all gay porn in Utah.

I've been using my Utah billing address for years. Just ride the wave, baby, ride the wave.

I like to think my people in Texas are just too smart to actually PAY for porn...

"may be the scarcity of adult entertainment outside the home."

That sounds like the most sensible conclusion to be drawn from this survey. If people can't get porn locally, then they're going online for it. Pretty common-sense stuff.

Of course, why anyone in any state would prefer a trek to the local XXX video store over a quick download is beyond me..

Whoo something for my fellow Utahns to be proud of...wait no it isn't. Who pays for porn online? I need to preach to the missionaries that come to my door about the miracle of Google to find 'companions'.

Yep, they loves them some Jello and porn. And ice cream. And magic underwear that protects the faithful from bullets and knife attacks.

Well, Maine's right up there.

There's really not a huge divide between the top ranked and bottom ranked states, and without knowing the content of the sites and a variety of other factors, it's really not fair to attribute the higher rate in certain states as a "red state" issue.

I thought 5.47 was terabyte per capita

Alaska! Where the men are men and so are the women.

Boy, if this doesn't say something about "Family Values"...
I guess the difference is that CA, NY & MA not only indulge, but we figure our pervy brethren should share the same boinking privileges.

(Note shameless working in "family", "share" and "boinking" into a story referencing Utah sexual practices)

@Trai_Dep: PS: Why is HA's perv rate so high? Red State tourists, of course!

@N.RobertMoses: It's not a poll, it's subscriber data. The researcher was probably given access to this company's database in order to conduct his study.

And because this is a "top 10 seller", they probably have enough customers to make it a representative sample of all porn customers.

/stat nerd

@ScottRose: It's not hard to get adult entertainment alternatives in Utah if you live within 50 miles of the Nevada border. Or go to parties w/ BYU students.

@yukonrye: Or the site they chose specializes in 18 women, 1 guy...

@Trai_Dep: So the take-away from this is that Blue states do it, Red states watch their neighbors doing it?
Eww. Eww. Eww.

It could be that because the Mormon girls give the guys blueballs they watch it for medical reasons.

@ScottRose: So they can sign the DVD boxes for an adoring public, of course!

@hooooooot: ...Because livestock does it for free?
(rimshot!)

@ScottRose: "may be the scarcity of adult entertainment outside the home."

I'm not sure if that's true -- red states I've lived in have tended to have far higher concentrations of strip clubs, "titty bars," XXX stores, even Hooterses. I'd like to see blue state/red state data on adult entertainment venues before making that judgment.

@Trai_Dep: lol, should not have liquids in area when jokes are out.

@Eyebrows McGee: Well in Utah you cant get Penthouse or Playboy or any other magazine like that anywhere but a sex shop. And from what ive seen there are less titty bars ect then other places.

@cuchanu: you'll need the numbers for acne medications to do a correlation graph there.

@Its The Beer Talking: You actually believe that there is such thing as a representative sample. There isn't.

>cuchanu: Funny thing is, I had exactly that happen. US Army MD prescribed masturbation to a married Mormon soldier who was far away from the wife.

We're in the midst of economic crisis and this is what we read about? While we're at it, what about the scientist who figured out where belly-button lint came from?

Wow. Talk about outside the lane.

Funny how when it's something about the Mormons people are always quick to make light of sacred things or spread falsehoods yet if it was about the Jews or Southern Baptists people refrain.

As for why Utah consumes so much Internet porn I think a lot has to do with accessibility outside the home. There really are no strip clubs, sex shops, magazine and video store here compared to everywhere else.

@Raekwon:

If you think they refrain if it is Jews or Southern Baptists, imagine if they made light of Islam.

In the media, Catholics are always fair game.

I agree with you. Very funny, not funny ha ha, but funny faux pas. Can't make fun of religion, except the Mormons.

@failurate: Alaska definitely makes sense. Huge male-to-female ratio, and not many places to buy...much of anything, really.

Pretty scenery, though.

@tankertodd: You can turn to the EconomicCrisisist.com blog if you like...all crisis, all the time...

Meanwhile, life goes on.

@jrubow: Scientologists are good, too.

But point taken. I would prefer to be able to satirize all religions equally.

@N.RobertMoses: Got statistics to back that up?

@Raekwon: I think if Mississippi had been top instead of third you'd be hearing plenty about Southern Baptists.

who the fuck still pays for porn these days. thats ridicules.

I was sure WI would have made the top 10!!

@tankertodd: I suppose you're right. Any academics who aren't economists need to just shut up till this financial crisis washes over.

"the scarcity of adult entertainment outside the home"

I don't buy it. I live in L.A. and I've never purchased adult material in a store. Any purchase I make would be on-line. This would be doubly true in a conservative small town where everyone knows everyone and no one wants to be seen in a porn shop.

Sure wouldn't be Tennessee - there's a porn store at every exit on I-40.

@floraposte: I think you're going to have to define "statistics" first. Since he doesn't believe in good polling, he's ignorant of the term.

Ohh, I have an idea! Maybe the researcher wanted to find the most interesting story, which of course would be mormon heavy Utah looking at more porn than any other state. He had some results he wanted to find, and then found the data to match it.

Think about this: Only broadband customers were surveyed. I know so many cheap mormons, even ones that are well off financially, that are too cheap to subscribe to broadband and suffer through dial up. Maybe this data is more skewed than one might have thought. I mean, remember that lame researcher who claimed autism was linked to vaccinations with mercury in them. He was the only one to ever get those results. But he published them, made them well known, and bam! Everyone blames vaccinations for autism and make a big huff and fuss over it when they could have been directing their energies towards more promising explanations.

@RandomHookup: seriously? he needed a prescription?

@Trai_Dep: Well, that was kind of the point :).

@draketrumpet: Perhaps the authors titled their study Usage of Online Porn to alert savvy readers that, y'know, it concerned online porn. Dial-up or cans-on-string aren't part of the sample.
Just because you're not down on the whole "science" thing doesn't mean it's not valid.

I didn't know that everybody in Utah was a practicing Mormon. I guess that means that everybody in New England is Catholic and everybody in the south is a Baptist. I like how quickly people will jump to the stereotype and assume that they know something about that which they know nothing.

Here is something interesting about the Mormon population in Utah. In the area between Ogden and Provo it is about 30% Mormon and in the thousand little towns with less than 5000 people in them the ratio is much higher. So yeah, the ratio may be pretty high on the Mormon side, but in the areas with the most population it is quickly becoming the minority. I work on a team in Utah with twenty people and there are two mormons on the team. I would suggest not believing the stereotype of everybody in Utah being mormon. It is absolutely not true.