New Research!
The Political Identity and Popular Culture Survey
Results of our first annual Political Identity and Popular Culture Survey were just released, and contain some surprising findings!
Academic research has demonstrated that people's news environments are politically siloed--Republicans and Democrats trust different news outlets and curate social media environments that tend to reinforce their existing beliefs and opinions.
Increasingly, however, the political views of more Americans (especially younger people) are being shaped by popular culture--influencers, podcasts, sports personalities, comedians, and video games.
We wanted to know whether the siloing that has been observed in Americans’ news environments is replicated when younger Americans are consuming entertainment media that often contains political content.
We asked 741 Americans ages 18-49 to name their top influencers, podcasts, comedians, musicians, video games, films, and television series. We examined results by age and political party.
Respondents first identified which pop culture outlets they engaged with and then shared their favorites in each content category. The answers were diffuse, but trends are evident in the top three listed by people across political affiliations.
We discovered that Republicans, Democrats, and Independents often named the same creators, and the list of personalities was dominated by men.
Creators like Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Shane Gillis, and Tucker Carlson were popular across the political spectrum, suggesting that "manosphere vibes" are not limited to politically conservative audiences.
For a full discussion of our survey results, as well as of the ways in which pop culture is shaping political identity, see our article in The Conversation.
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