Where do hard-core statisticians go to gauge the nation's cultural, political and moral pulse?

To the 1995 Pizza Meter, of course.

Domino's Pizza has again published the results of its coveted Pizza Meter--a semi-serious annual report that details precisely what Americans are up to when they order pepperoni pies.

The newest trend? This year it's the nation's growing conservatism, based on the volume of people who answered the door naked when the pizza boy came calling.

"The number of nude door answerers dropped a little this year," said spokesman Tim McIntyre. "This could mean good marketing by the underwear companies, it could mean we're having colder winters--but most likely it means the nation is taking fewer risks. We're becoming more conservative."

Another sign of budding conservatism: The No. 2 fake name pizza orderers gave this year was Virginia Gingrich, the mother of House Speaker Newt Gingrich. (No. 1 was Al Cowlings.) She called Hillary Clinton something nasty during an interview with Connie Chung, and her name became one of the year's most popular pseudonyms.

McIntyre emphasized that the 9-year-old Pizza Meter is not facetious. It's based on interviews of 500 deliverers and store managers nationwide.

"It is very loosely scientific," McIntyre said.

Researchers at Domino's Ann Arbor, Mich., headquarters asked questions such as, "Did you deliver to anyone who answered the door in their underwear this year? Please identify the underwear." (That's how Domino's found out that the majority of underwear-clad orderers wear Calvin Klein briefs.)

Domino's came up with the idea during the Reagan administration.

"We were noticing a trend in Washington, that pizza orders to the White House, Pentagon and FBI would spike one or two days before elections and international political events," McIntyre said. "The gulf war was big."

Another dramatic spike came 15 minutes prior to the afternoon verdict reading in the O.J. Simpson trial. The surge ended abruptly at 1 p.m.--the precise moment at which a court clerk proclaimed innocence for the football hero accused of murder.

"We could barely believe it," McIntyre said, "but not a single pizza was ordered in the United States for five minutes between 1 o'clock and 1:05."

Other findings:

- People who answered the door while listening to rap music were 45 percent more likely to order a meat-topped pizza than non-rap listeners. Country music listeners tipped best.

- UN delegates from France tipped 42 percent below average. French delegates complained about orders five times more than other groups.

- Men who answered the door while watching "Baywatch" on TV were three times more likely to be bald than those tuning in to other shows.

- Whenever the pope traveled to a U.S. city, pizza deliveries to local bowling alleys increased 14 percent.

- People who answered the door wearing polyester ordered 9 percent more vegetarian pizzas than those sporting natural fibers.