Some celebrate a political candidate’s victory with a party, while others choose porn, finds a new study.

The study by a Rutgers–Camden researcher suggest vicarious winning in elections yields a higher usage of internet porn. Depending on the party wins in 2004, 2006, and 2008, some members “celebrated” with visits to sultry internet sites.

This research, which utilized Google trends, has been popular on blogs as well as with wisecracks from the researchers’ friends.

“Google trends is a way to get a snap shot of what people are really thinking about,” says Rutgers–Camden psychologist Charlotte Markey. “Thirty percent of all content on the internet is pornography. This sounds absurd for people who don’t go to these sites, but for a large part of the population, that’s what people are doing.”

Research has shown testosterone levels fluctuate with whether or not one wins in a competition. Even if a man is sitting in a bar and his team wins, his testosterone levels will rise, says Markey.

While Google trends doesn’t specify gender, it is estimated that 90 percent of porn use is attributed to men.

The researchers chose to focus on U.S. election cycles, studying each state and the District of Columbia the week before and the week after each election, because they could clearly document one winner and one loser at a national level.

“Having access to this technology can be useful for many disciplines, not just psychology,” says Markey.

“For a study like this, we could see where people were actually going online, perhaps something participants might not be willing to admit in person, on paper, or even to themselves,” she adds.

The findings have been published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour.

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