Republican Porn Clicking to Skyrocket After Midterm Takeover

Elections have consequences. One of them is increased Internet porn viewing by the winning partisans.

That's according to a new study by two academics from Villanova and Rutgers, who are clearly putting all that grant money to good use. The Economist reports:

When Barack Obama won the American presidency in 2008 his supporters cheered, cried, hugged--and in many cases logged on to their computers to look at pornography. And, lest Republicans crow about the decadence of their opponents, precisely the obverse happened when their man won in 2004.

That, at least, is the conclusion of a study by Patrick Markey of Villanova University, in Pennsylvania, and his wife Charlotte, who works at Rutgers, in New Jersey. The Markeys were looking for confirmation of a phenomenon called the challenge hypothesis. This suggests that males involved in a competition will experience a rise in testosterone levels if they win, and a fall if they lose.

Which basically means that, according to the best guesses of our most venerated politics pros--Charlie Cook, Stuart Rothenberg, Larry Sabato, and every political analyst on every major or minor news network--Tea Partiers are going to be looking at so much porn next month. So much porn.

It's the same basic phenomenon that occurs when men watch football games and their teams win. The testosterone goes up. Logically, his would imply that, In lieu of an appealing, consenting partner, some porn viewing might in some less fortunate cases ensue. Elections are a bloodsport too, so it generally fits the paradigm.

Read more at The Economist.