7. Baron and Straus (1984)

The experiment: a 50-state correlational analysis of reported rape rates by state and the circulation rates of the top eight porn magazines by state.

The results:

• A highly significant correlation (+0.64) was found between reported rape rates and circulation rates.

• Baron and Straus also considered each state’s statistics for race, poverty, unemployment, and social disorganization.

In the end, they concluded that porn readership and the level of urbanization explained more of the difference in rape rates than anything else they could uncover.

Replication studies have yielded similar results.