"Rethinking Mormons and Porn: Utah 40th in US in New Porn Data"

[Judd]

I haven't seen this posted anywhere here yet. I appreciate a different approach to evaluating Utah's pornography use as the idea that Mormons look at porn more had become a doctrinal truism in many circles and taken as a given based upon a string of loose connections on data that introduced a great deal of selection bias. Hopefully this could add to a greater discussion when this concept is thrown out there but I doubt it. 

http://virtuoussociety.com/2014/04/16/rethinking-mormons-and-porn-utah-40th-in-us-in-new-porn-data/

[stemelbow]

Intersting but still lacking plenty to draw too many conclusions. 

[Calm]

Interesting find.  Thanks for posting it.

[Storm Rider]

Thanks for adding this.  I have always had problems with statistics because results are so easy to manipulate.  The old refrain that Utah had a major problem with pornography did not make sense to me.  It conflicted with my understanding of my Utah friends and the way they lived their lives.  They are not unique or strange; they are just average, faithful LDS.  Yet, the accusation was joyfully thrown up when the topic came up by critics.  

This new study has value and is worth reviewing.  It does not change the fact that pornography remains a disease on promoting healthy communities.  

[cdowis]

The irony is that Georgia, the "buckle of the Bible belt", the headquarters of the Southern Baptist Convention, is among the top ten states.
 Apparently the Baptists have a very serious problem with porn.

Edited March 14, 2016 by cdowis

[Judd]

29 minutes ago, stemelbow said:

Intersting but still lacking plenty to draw too many conclusions. 

Absolutely. The status quo states that Utah has higher subscribing rate to a paid porn site, therefore Mormons consume more pornography. This has been ingrained to the point that nobody evaluated what it even meant.

[USU78]

16 minutes ago, Judd said:

Absolutely. The status quo states that Utah has higher subscribing rate to a paid porn site, therefore Mormons consume more pornography. This has been ingrained to the point that nobody evaluated what it even meant.

That Utahns are too dumb to find the free stuff?

That Utahns are offended by youtube commercials?

Something else?

[Boanerges]

17 minutes ago, Judd said:

Absolutely. The status quo states that Utah has higher subscribing rate to a paid porn site, therefore Mormons consume more pornography. This has been ingrained to the point that nobody evaluated what it even meant.

Yeah, it's like the Mormonism is the fastest growing church. That's absolutely true from one point of view. In sheer numbers, though, it is absolutely false - Islam and Catholicism (just to name two) far outgrow Mormonism in actual numbers each year, and both are far, far bigger than the CoJCoLDS. Using statistics to prove a point is generally not fully accurate because they can be manipulated and we can use whatever stat proves the point we want to prove even though other stats tell a different story.

Thanks for sharing the article. I doubt it will sway any GC speakers from the topic of porn. (I'm betting on at least two porn talks, at least one in priesthood.)

[BlueDreams]

2 hours ago, Boanerges said:

Thanks for sharing the article. I doubt it will sway any GC speakers from the topic of porn. (I'm betting on at least two porn talks, at least one in priesthood.)

And it probably shouldn't. Of my clients currently, at least half have had issues in some way with porn. Though not all of them would meet the terms for an "addiction"...all that I've mentioned have had problems that effected their partner relationships. Not all of them are LDS (most are because the company I work for focuses on sexuality in religious couples in UT). The problems I see are either porn-specific, related to messages porn gives, or the porn was a means to avoid relational problems (which then made them worse...surprise!). I don't agree with all their messages about porn that GC/others have given because the demonizing message can make it worse for couples later on. But that doesn't mean it should stay quiet or ignore its current significance. It's a growing and serious problem in or outside of LDS circles. My wish would be a greater understanding of how it can negatively effect relationships...and not just in broad simplified terms or related solely to those who may have "addictions."**

 

With luv, 

BD

**I put quotation marks around the term because it's something that's a controversial term in psychology circles when related to pornography/sex in general.  

[Robert F. Smith]

Why does this article carry a date of 2014 while all the comments in reply are from 2016?  Is this article really two years old?

[gopher]

18 minutes ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Why does this article carry a date of 2014 while all the comments in reply are from 2016?  Is this article really two years old?

There's link to show Older Comments that show all the comments going back to 2014 (currently 102 comments)

[TheSkepticChristian]

On 3/14/2016 at 10:19 AM, Judd said:

I haven't seen this posted anywhere here yet. I appreciate a different approach to evaluating Utah's pornography use as the idea that Mormons look at porn more had become a doctrinal truism in many circles and taken as a given based upon a string of loose connections on data that introduced a great deal of selection bias. Hopefully this could add to a greater discussion when this concept is thrown out there but I doubt it. 

The average visit in Utah does spend more time watching porn than less religious states.. The less religious state in the country is New Hampshire, and the most religious state is Mississippi according to Gallup. However, Mississippi is the state most addicted to porn, and New Hampshire is the less addicted (3rd less addicted).    

http://www.gallup.com/poll/189038/new-hampshire-least-religious-state.aspx

So yes, the anti-porn teachings probably backfire, they probably make porn visitors stay longer in the website   

I don't think there are a lot of porn stores in rural Vermont. 

Edited March 17, 2016 by TheSkepticChristian

[Gray]

I'm not sure how visit duration would correlate to addictedness of people in the states, or number of people "addicted" (viewing)

[TheSkepticChristian]

13 minutes ago, Gray said:

I'm not sure how visit duration would correlate to addictedness of people in the states, or number of people "addicted" (viewing)

higher average time per visit does suggest more addiction 

Edited March 17, 2016 by TheSkepticChristian

[Gray]

29 minutes ago, TheSkepticChristian said:

higher average time per visit does suggest more addiction 

How do you figure? It actually doesn't say anything about addiction. Addiction to porn is pretty rare. 

[TheSkepticChristian]

2 hours ago, Gray said:

How do you figure? It actually doesn't say anything about addiction. Addiction to porn is pretty rare. 

It depends how you define addiction. For the sake of argument let's just say more time. Religious state spend more time per visit. 

Here is what I said in the other tread. 

Quote

Anti-pornography campaigns simply make porn more attractive, the forbidding is more attractive, people like to misbehave. 

Look up the forbidden fruit theory. Forbidden fruit theory is " a psychology-based one that refers to the frequency, amount used, or the actual use and/or abuse of a substance merely, because it is illegal and/or whilst it has been mandated, or by use of coercion, to not use. "Some psychology research suggests restricting junk food may have the paradoxical effect of making kids like it even more than they already do." https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/bad-appetite/200910/forbidden-fruit

The evidence is clear, so I hope our church stops the disease porn campaign, it will only make it worst. 

 

[TrespassersW]

2 hours ago, TheSkepticChristian said:

higher average time per visit does suggest more addiction 

It seems to me that if you want to measure addiction to pornography then average duration of visit probably isn't the best statistic.

[The Nehor]

25 minutes ago, TheSkepticChristian said:

It depends how you define addiction. For the sake of argument let's just say more time. Religious state spend more time per visit. 

So for the sake of argument you want to redefine a word? I think you are bad at arguing.

[sheilauk]

Indeed.  If someone in Mississippi visits once a year for 12 minutes and someone in New Hampshire visits 20 times a year for 10 minutes every time, the average length of visit will be the same as that on the graph above but who is the more addicted? Average length of visit is not determined by the number of visits.

[Gray]

38 minutes ago, TheSkepticChristian said:

It depends how you define addiction. For the sake of argument let's just say more time. Religious state spend more time per visit. 

Here is what I said in the other tread. 

 

From what I understand addiction is very rare. I don't think more time = addicted. Maybe there's just less to do in conservative states. 

[TheSkepticChristian]

2 hours ago, sheilauk said:

Indeed.  If someone in Mississippi visits once a year for 12 minutes and someone in New Hampshire visits 20 times a year for 10 minutes every time, the average length of visit will be the same as that on the graph above but who is the more addicted? Average length of visit is not determined by the number of visits.

Nice theory, but there is no evidence to back that up, and there is a problem. It is obvious that more people living in "less religious states" have seen porn at least once. However, the data shows that people in more religious states do spend more time watching porn. 

Why do less religious states have less time? Answer that question please. 

I did present evidence to back up my assumption, it is the forbidden fruit theory in psychology. What is the evidence to back up your assumption? Wishful thinking? 

On 3/14/2016 at 10:19 AM, Judd said:

I haven't seen this posted anywhere here yet. I appreciate a different approach to evaluating Utah's pornography use as the idea that Mormons look at porn more had become a doctrinal truism in many circles and taken as a given based upon a string of loose connections on data that introduced a great deal of selection bias. Hopefully this could add to a greater discussion when this concept is thrown out there but I doubt it. 

http://virtuoussociety.com/2014/04/16/rethinking-mormons-and-porn-utah-40th-in-us-in-new-porn-data/

Population and page views per visit are not enough to determine the page view per capita statistic. The crucial missing ingredient is total number of page views per state, which is not provided anywhere in this article, but which can be determined by multiplying the population figure by the page views per capita figure, then dividing by the pages per visit number.

2 hours ago, Gray said:

 Maybe there's just less to do in conservative states. 

that is a possibility 

Edited March 18, 2016 by TheSkepticChristian

[volgadon]

3 hours ago, TheSkepticChristian said:

Nice theory, but there is no evidence to back that up, and there is a problem. It is obvious that more people living in "less religious states" have seen porn at least once. However, the data shows that people in more religious states do spend more time watching porn. 

Why do less religious states have less time? Answer that question please. 

I did present evidence to back up my assumption, it is the forbidden fruit theory in psychology. What is the evidence to back up your assumption? Wishful thinking? 

Population and page views per visit are not enough to determine the page view per capita statistic. The crucial missing ingredient is total number of page views per state, which is not provided anywhere in this article, but which can be determined by multiplying the population figure by the page views per capita figure, then dividing by the pages per visit number.

that is a possibility 

You really don't have sufficient data to make this more than assumption. Really rich of you to berate another for it.

[VideoGameJunkie]

How often do you have to view porn for it to be classified by the church as "porn addiction"?

[Calm]

I don't believe the Church has made any official pronouncement on how much or how often defines an addiction.

Addiction is probably better defined by how the behaviour affects one's life rather than some set amount.

https://www.lds.org/topics/addiction?lang=eng

Edited March 18, 2016 by Calm

[TheSkepticChristian]

3 hours ago, volgadon said:

You really don't have sufficient data to make this more than assumption. Really rich of you to berate another for it.

Okay, how about another independent study? 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25277691

1 hour ago, Calm said:

Addiction is probably better defined by how the behaviour affects one's life rather than some set amount.

https://www.lds.org/topics/addiction?lang=eng

and porn does affect the lives of religious people, it doesn't affect the lives of the atheists. 

9 hours ago, Gray said:

From what I understand addiction is very rare.

True, but here is an article that explains how porn affects religious people. It's source is a Paper  

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/if-porn-addiction-isnt-real-why-do-very-religious-people-think-theyre-hooked