Is Spring (aka sex) really in the air? Well these researchers set out to find out how the season affects our Google searches. Turns out we are seasonal pervs.

Since you’re probs not gonna read the article yourself, let me summarize what we did know about seasons trends as they relate to sex, mating, and otherwise.

– American data shows a peak in abortions in January (likely due to a boom in bedroom activities over the holidays)

– Condom sales? They peak during Christmas week and during the summer months

– STI diagnoses show a post-Christmas and in the late summer/early fall peak.

And here is what we now know thanks to these researchers…

The researchers were interested in the following 3 areas (Prostitution, Pornography, Mate Seeking) and their corresponding words:

So these keywords were flagged based on US Google searches between January 2006 and March 2011. FYI – Other comparison word were used: pets, popular websites, car parts (tires, brakes, engine, etc)

The researchers used the Relative Search Volume Index (RSVI) which is reported as a percent increase (or decrease) for a keyword over a particular time period. So a RSVI of 2% means that a particular keyword was 2% higher than the norm for the time period of interest (e.g., -2% would = 2% lower than the norm for the time period).

So the researchers compiled monthly average RSVIs for porn, prostitution, and mate-seeking and then compared those over the entire period. Turns out, yup…there are some seasonal patterns here, folks.

Pornography = 4.28% increase above the mean for December and June.

Pornography

Prostitution showed a 3% increase above the mean in January and July.

Prostitution

Mate-seeking = 5.67% increase above the mean in January and July.

Mate Seeking

What’s cool about this is that these % increases likely reflect thousands and thousands (if not millions) of additional Google searches for these keywords since it takes a lot of individual searches to affect the RSVIs.

Now if you wanna get really technical, here’s more evidence that there are 2 distinct periods for the year.

In terms of pornography, 16% of the searches are explained by seasonal searches. Prostitution = 24% and mate-seeking = 21%.

Searches about cats and cars? 2%

You pickin’ up what I’m puttin’ down here?

= the season affects our sexy searches!

Not our searches about puppies and kittens. Well, maybe for just one type of kitty…