Monday, November 28, 2011

Predictors of wanting porn to be illegal

GSS participants were asked if they thought that porn should be illegal. I looked to see which characteristics predict answering yes (sample size = 12,246):


Logistic Regression Coefficients

Age .03
Sex .81
Educ -.04
IQ -.01
Income -.01
Church attendance .19
Conservatism .21
Year -.01

All the relationships are statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence level (two-tailed test).  Making porn illegal is favored by people who are: older, female, less educated, less intelligent, poorer, more religious, and more conservative. In addition, support for getting rid of the stuff has dropped over the past 40 years.

The coefficients are not standardized, so don't try to estimate the strength of a relationship from the numbers. Actually, it looks like the most powerful predictors are: age, religiosity, sex, and conservatism, in that order. I was surprised to see that almost half of women support banning pornography, and this number has changed little in 40 years.

Dana Carvey was on to something with his SNL "Church Lady." Funny stuff, but call me crazy: I respect old religious women.

8 comments:

  1. By trying to restrict porn women are trying to gain more power over men. Porn reduces women's sexual power. Fat and ugly women have it worst since most guys would rather view porn than be with a fat and/or ugly woman.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am guessing that a similar rank-order would exist if you ask if prostitution should be illegal, although even more would say it should be illegal.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, we hang out at different parishes. Old, religious ladies at parishes I've been around have tended to be either unhinged, feminist whackadoodles or Oprah Catholics. Back in the 80s there were still a lot of old Italian and Irish ladies who were awesome, but they seem to be dead now.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous2:25 PM

    Porn reduces women's sexual power.


    That is the hands-down the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

    most guys would rather view porn than be with a fat and/or ugly woman.


    Assuming that's true, it's rather pathetic that you see it as a win for guys. "Hooray, I can sit at home and jack off instead of having to interact with another human being!"

    I get the impression you think fat and/or ugly guys are better off masturbating than having sex with fat and/or ugly women.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous10:29 AM

    Would women be so enthusiastic if men defined porn to include all thier emotional porn as well?

    Bye Bye Romance novels, daytime soaps, grocery store checkout gossip rags, twilight, every romantic comedy ever made.

    oops. No they just want to take away the MENS toys, not the ladies.

    And anonymous 2:25, Yes. Interacting with a Fat/Ugly woman IS unpleasant and to be avoided whenever possible, and interacting with one in any kind of romantic situation is avoided by Men with any choice at all. And porn is a choice.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous2:10 PM

    Interacting with a Fat/Ugly woman IS unpleasant and to be avoided whenever possible, and interacting with one in any kind of romantic situation is avoided by Men with any choice at all. And porn is a choice.


    Sure, porn is a choice. And buying an ipod is a choice. Just about everything we do is a choice. But not everything is a alternative to everything else.

    Has it ever occurred to you that you might be happier switching teams? That you're actually homosexual? That's a choice also.

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  7. This has been a cautionary tale.

    Don't feed the trolls, kids!

    ReplyDelete
  8. The correct analogy to fat/ugly for women is poor and nerdy for men.

    ReplyDelete

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