Was the frequency and quality of sex with spouses controlled for? For example, some men remark (right or wrong) that the kind of woman one marries, with traditional values who will stay faithful and be a good mother, are not the kind of women who are best in bed. Marrying someone for less sensual reasons may lead to less, or worse, sex and, in turn, to more people taking matters into their own hands with a little help from the kind of women online that people in places like Utah don't want to marry. When people marry on the pure basis of passion, however, it's possible that the sex is better, for longer. (I'm assuming most marriages in most places exhibit declining rates of sexual intimacy as time goes by; perhaps it declines earlier in some states or was never as good as it could have been in the first place.)

Many believe pornography consumption/viewing is also a substitute for sex. They note that porn consumption increases in males who are not currently in a sexual relationship. Is it possible that the males in the red states may be viewing what is absent in their sexual lives? This would include certain sex acts or positions. Would it be the desire to have sex with their spouse or partner as opposed to making love? Is part of the appeal of porn for men in the red states the fact that women in porn are very attractive compared to their current partner or spouse? Are they just viewing fantasies that they don't intend to engage in, that they know will probably just stay fantasies, i.e. group sex and multiple partners? While these consumers are mostly men, is their a sizable minority of women in these states who view porn privately, viewing fantasies that will probably just stay fantasies? I think further study is required before any of these questions can be answered. Conservative religion has a dim view of porn, but it also has a dim view of the thoughts, desires, and fantasies that go along with porn. Many of these people may just be viewing porn for visual stimulation with no intention of cheating on their partner or attending an orgy.

I would like to point out that there is a difference between being republican and socially conservative. Not all republicans are against porn and I doubt that McCain himself is against it, because he isn't a social conservative. Nor do I think social conservatives were particularly happy about McCain.

I am a conservative from a "red state", but I do not consider myself Republican. I am also not a Christian or religious, but most people I know are. Many Christians I know look at porn just as much as I do. However, most Christians I know would not deny it. Most Christians I know do not pretend to be perfect. They lead their life very similar to the way I do. The only difference is they believe in God and I don't. I've met very few Christians who are the stereotypical "do this and you'll go to hell" type. Most of those were probably women.

I have subscribed to a few porn sites before, and always look at free porn... almost daily. Oh yeah, I voted for McCain too. I was not a McCain supporter, but moreover, I did not want the most liberal person in Congress to become president, but he did anyway.

Lots of ramblings, but hopefully you can take something away from this as a person who was likely included in this study.

Dr. Barber, the title of your post is "Why Conservatives Spend More" - but the post does not actually address 'why' they spend more. It simply states the data that they do.

But regardless, I'm sure the answer is multi-faceted. I do believe that repression leads to fixation, as you mentioned with the monk example. It may be, however, that the porn consumption is the same among liberals and conservatives... consider these scenarios:

Its possible conservatives are less computer savvy than liberals. The use of bittorrent downloaders and other pirating methods make the availability of free porn limitless. The computer savvy person could have 10 times the porn of a not-so-savvy person who must use traditional paid subscriptions... from your post it seems 'number of subscriptions' was used as a determinant, however illegal/pirated porn would not show up as a subscription at all - therefor making the legal downloaders appear to be the only porn consumer when that is in fact not the case.

Also liberal people might be more comfortable with trading porn among friends which cuts down on number of subscriptions, whereas conservatives would each download their own subscriptions in private to keep it a secret (probably never even knowing their friends are in fact doing the same thing and that they could save plenty of money if they just co-ordinated).

A liberal person might get their 'daily fix' of porn from various media outlets, such as cable TV and rated R movies. It is of course not the same as 'hard core' porn, but it may be enough to satiate the urge to get online and pay good money for a porn site. A conservative person might elect to avoid watching such immoral shows and movies (which would probably have to be viewed when others are around), and instead elect to download porn in private so as to not be judged. The time spent watching sexualized images, however, might be roughly the same between the two groups- but the conservative who has ordered a subscription is the only one being counted, not the liberal who spends 3 hours a night watching HBO.

Also it could be that the liberal 10% of Utah watches sooooo much porn that they put the state on top when the per capita is averaged out, even though the 90% that is conservative watches zero porn (but of course,I don't believe thats the case).

Ultimately I do think its repression. Conservatives (specifically religious conservatives, not necessarily libertarian conservatives as already pointed out) are probably on the whole more embarrassed or feel more ashamed to engage in sex talk, sex fantasies, etc with their spouses. This normal and healthy outlet is therefor denied to them (along with the R-Rated movies and such I mentioned earlier) - so any 'sex fix' they require (assuming, as I do, humans require this) must be found elsewhere, and often in secret. Downloading porn is the perfect solution - as it is discreet and safe.