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A State-Level Analysis of Mortality and Google Searches for Pornography: Insight from Life History Theory

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Abstract

Due to the widespread popularity of pornography, some studies explored which individual factors are associated with the frequency of pornography use. However, knowledge about the relationship between socioecological environment and pornography consumption remains scant. Based on life history theory, the current research investigated the association between state-level mortality and search interest for pornography using Google trends. We observed that, in the U.S., the higher mortality or violent crime rate in a state, the stronger search interest for pornography on Google. The results expand the literature regarding the relationship between socioecological environment and individuals’ online sexual behavior at the state level.

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Acknowledgements

We extend warm thanks to Dr. Zucker and anonymous reviewers for their insights and detailed comments which helped us to substantially improve the paper. We would also like to thank the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31600910).

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Correspondence to Fang Wang.

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No conflict of interest exits in the submission of this manuscript, and manuscript is approved by all authors for publication. I would like to declare on behalf of my co-authors that work described was original research that has not been published previously, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. All the authors listed have approved the manuscript that is enclosed.

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Cheng, L., Zhou, X., Wang, F. et al. A State-Level Analysis of Mortality and Google Searches for Pornography: Insight from Life History Theory. Arch Sex Behav 49, 3005–3011 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01765-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01765-0

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