From Deseret News archives:

What do Utahns Google? Answers may come as surprise

Published: Friday, Oct. 12, 2007 12:14 a.m. MDT
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SEX: Utah and Salt Lake City are both No. 1 in the nation among states and cities for: "boobs," "naked," "nude," "nudity," "pornography," "strip poker" and "striptease."

Separately, Utah is No. 1 also for "blonde," "brunette," "lingerie" and "naked girls." It is No. 2 for "redhead"; No. 3 for "hot sex"; and No. 4 for "barely legal."

Is this surprising?

Utah leading the nation in both "Jesus" and "pornography" actually does not surprise most psychologists, sociologists and therapists — or even sex addicts.

"That is a normal human sort of activity, but it is especially apparent in communities such as Salt Lake, where conformity is so strictly enforced," says Martinez, the U. sociologist.

"The Internet is anonymous. And where you have more rigid social norms, you are bound to have people who want to explore forbidden things. This does not say that people are immoral or evil or anything like that. It simply means that people are curious," she says.

She adds, "There may be more pressure here to be part of the culture that is known for family values and being good. When people feel a lot of pressure, they rebel."

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Many others agree that the high percentage in Utah of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — and pressures to conform or rebel against it — account for leading the world and nation in Web searches for topics light and dark.

"I think the culture holds very high standards in terms of the 'light' things, so it's not surprising that the dark things would also be pretty extreme," says Ray William London, a former Utahn who is CEO of the Human Studies Center in Irvine, Calif., and is both a psychologist and an Internet law expert.

Mick Quinn, an Irish-born philosopher and author, says of the Utah Web search findings, "The shadow is the part of ourselves we repress or deny. The shadow often emerges as actions related to that which we profess to abhor, such as searches related to naked girls, striptease and desirable underwear."

Fred Rhodewalt, a psychology professor at the U., says the findings are difficult to interpret. For example, it is unclear whether the same people are doing the "light and dark" searches themselves, or whether two different groups are pursuing different topics.

He adds, "When I look at the list, I see youth interest. Utah has a lot of young people; might this account for high interest in all these topics?"

Carol Sansone, another psychology professor at the U., says while it is possible that entirely different groups are Googling "pornography" and "Jesus," "That's not the explanation I would put my money on."

Recent comments

I would be quite leery of the data relied upon for this article....

science guy | March 24, 2008 at 9:29 p.m.

A few of you above already touched on this point, but there is a big...

scotty | Oct. 17, 2007 at 2:06 p.m.

I dont see what all the lds vs anti-lds hubub is all about. Its what...

Any-mouse | Oct. 16, 2007 at 1:18 p.m.

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