ST. CATHERINES, Canada – Porn sites wanting to boost their subscriber base may want to target consumers living in U.S. states known for conservative politics and religious zeal, according to researchers at Brock University. People in Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Texas, for example, are more likely to perform porn-related searches on Google than their countrymen in liberal areas not overrun with fundamentalist Christians.

In an article published in the scientific journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, psychologists Dr. Cara C. MacInnis and Dr. Gordon Hodson ask the question “Do American States with More Religious or Conservative Populations Search More for Sexual Content on Google?”

The answer, according to Google Trends data for 2011 and 2012, is “yes.”

According to MacInnis and Hodson, the higher the level of conservatism and religiosity in a state, the more likely it is residents will search for terms including “sex,” “gay sex,” “porn,” “xxx,” “free porn” and “gay porn.” The researchers’ data indicated Texans and Georgians, while not at the top of the pile in religiosity or conservatism, search for porn-related terms most often. Mississippi, which MacInnis and Hodson labeled the most conservative and religious state, came in a close third in the sex-search race.

The researchers found a similar correlation between social values and searches for sexually explicit images.

“Overall, a reliable positive association of moderate-to-large association size exists between state-level religiosity and searches for the term ‘sex,’” MacInnis and Hodson noted in the article.

Still, they allowed, “it may be that these ‘sex’ searches were conducted with the intention of delivering ‘traditional’ sexual content (e.g., information regarding monogamous, married, heterosexual sex).”