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There is a very interesting post at ( http://virtuoussociety.com/2014/04/16/rethinking-mormons-and-porn-utah-40th-in-us-in-new-porn-data/ In this study, Utah ranks 40th – while Wyoming and Idaho (relatively high Mormon populations) rank even lower than that.
In other words, this study lists the three states with the highest Mormon population as among the lowest users of internet porn in the country.Also, when deeper analyses are employed, the numbers appear to be even lower for Mormons and, especially, “religious Mormons”. It’s an excellent post – especially since it openly says data from one distributor (in both studies) can’t conclusively represent the entire industry and since it actually uses solid statistical analysis to discuss the data.
At the very least, it’s obvious that it’s invalid to assume as true the oft-quoted idea that Utah leads the nation in porn use.
The obvious answer is that Utah is a remote, very rural state. People there don’t have access to sex shops, printed material and strip bars to the same extent as elsewhere. Also as people know, not all of Utah is Mormon.
Ray Thanks for posting this. I saw this report and thought of posting it myself. I have always been suspicious of the “Utah leads the country in porn use” factoid that is frequently trotted out. This study (I imagine it still has its problems) seems more reflective of what I would suspect reality to be. Namely that you probably have occasional casual viewers and perhaps a few individuals that struggle with addict-like behavior. That’s not to say this isn’t issue among Mormons. I feel that as a people we are way too twisted up inside about sex in all its various forms. A more open (but still appropriate) dialogue about these issues would be beneficial.
Good! Now maybe we can cease or decrease the barrage of porn talks from the pulpits! I always claimed this problem wasn’t as pervasive as people were making it out to be! You know, I have never thought about the possible connection between the 2009 survey and assumptions based on it and the frequency of porn talks. They might be unrelated, especially since we started hearing the talks before 2009, but that claim might be part of the reason we still hear them so often. If so, I hope this new survey gets heard and perhaps reduces the frequency of the talks – although I won’t be holding my breath. SamBee wrote:The obvious answer is that Utah is a remote, very rural state. People there don’t have access to sex shops, printed material and strip bars to the same extent as elsewhere.
Also as people know, not all of Utah is Mormon.
Not sure what your saying here. The study reported online porn use.
Unknown wrote:SamBee wrote:The obvious answer is that Utah is a remote, very rural state. People there don’t have access to sex shops, printed material and strip bars to the same extent as elsewhere.
Also as people know, not all of Utah is Mormon.
Not sure what your saying here. The study reported online porn use.
“People there don’t have access to …printed material… to the same extent as elsewhere.”
And so they [fill in the blank.]
Couple of issues with this data: – It’s reported per capita. States with higher birth-rates (i.e. more kids under 12) will have an artificially lower index. The 2009 study reported “per 1000 housholds with broadband.” The data needs to be rebased on households to be more accurate. Even after this is done, Utah would still not be top but would be higher.
– It’s one website that is at the “hardcore” end of the scale. It’s possible that Utah (and other republican/bible belt states) have more parental filters at home. This kind of website would certainly be blocked. A while back I did a study of google search trends (google insights). Utah scored higher on “softcore” terms vs “hardcore” terms.
I think that’s an excellent point, mackay11. Old-Timer wrote:There is a very interesting post…that analyzes a new study of state-by-state porn use. It outlines the statistical problems with the 2009 study that is so well-known (listing Utah at the top of the list) and does some statistical analysis of the numbers from the county’s second-largest porn distributor…In this study, Utah ranks 40th – while Wyoming and Idaho (relatively high Mormon populations) rank even lower than that.
In other words, this study lists the three states with the highest Mormon population as among the lowest users of internet porn in the country.Also, when deeper analyses are employed, the numbers appear to be even lower for Mormons and, especially, “religious Mormons”…At the very least, it’s obvious that it’s invalid to assume as true the oft-quoted idea that Utah leads the nation in porn use. I agree that people have told too many stories and jumped to way too many conclusions based on the original 2009 report but I don’t think these new statistics really prove that much either. Basically it sounds like the first statistics only showed that Utah was #1 at the time for paid credit card subscriptions to an unnamed top-10 adult entertainment vendor and the new statistics are only for the third largest adult website. Well what about all the other websites where people can view porn/nudity that we don’t have any statistics for?
What about any men viewing porn DVDs or magazines repeatedly? Basically I have no doubt that there is an awful lot of porn viewing going on in all 50 states that would never be counted by either of these limited statistics. Also only about 60% of the population in Utah is still Mormon and the majority of nominal LDS Church members are not active so it is probably easily less than 25% that are really what most people would think of as a stereotypical Mormon and many of these are children or don’t have current temple recommends so some of the automatic association people like to assume there is between Utah and Mormons is not necessarily very fair or accurate.
Old-Timer wrote:I think that’s an excellent point, mackay11.
I can’t really claim credit for the original thought. It was pointed out to me on another forum and I realised they were good points.
I’ve tried to run some ‘equalisation’ stuff. Even with the ‘per capita’ issues, Utah is still a very long way from the top of the list (for this one website)
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