How You Shop (or eat, or drive…) Has A Lot To Do With Your Support For The President

A new book out November 12^th from Duke University professors Scott de Marchi and James Hamilton makes the claim that if you study the decisions people make everyday–like how they shop, drive and eat—you can tell if they are likely to support the president, among other things. The authors wrote in an essay posted on the Huffington Post Tuesday:

“Being a fan of a political party is like being a fan in sports or music: you’re consuming an identity, expressing an idea, and belonging to a team. Major party fans are easy to spot in their lives as neighbors or shoppers. They’re altruistic, enjoy information, show a sense of belonging, and are stickier than most people in their product choices.” (“stickiness” explained further down…)

Their theory for predicting choice—and explaining why people have such different styles of decision making—is outlined in their book: You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind That Really Determine How We Make Decisions, and it looks at a host of odd behavioral patterns, such as—

People who recycle are more likely to get the flu shot.

Mac users prefer light beer.

Supports of same sex marriage are more willing to buy stocks.

Someone who owns Nintendo Wii is more likely to visit Las Vegas.

People who volunteer are more likely to try online dating.

These guys call the way people approaching decision-making their TRAITS—an acronym they devised that stands for time, risk, altruism, information, meToo and stickiness. Here’s how they explain it:

“We measure a taste for Risk by studying whether a person gambles, smokes, drives fast, or plays risky sports. People score high on our Information measure by buying more books, consulting more sources for financial information, and searching out news on the web and cable. Rating whether a person is high on meToo depends on the degree they look to the brand and product decisions of others and are part of a large network of friends. A person’s Stickiness rating depends on factors such as the number of cars they considered when shopping, how many fast food or casual dining restaurants they go to, and the number of different cuisines they eat.

Our TRAITS measures let us use how people make decisions on the road or in the supermarket to predict how they react in the voting booth or in political conversations.”

They believe that in choosing what to buy or believe, we all “face choices about happiness now or in the future, the possibility of a bad outcome, or whether your choice somehow affects others.”

The authors studied changes in President Bush’s job approval rating between 2004 and 2005, and found that Republicans continued to rate Bush much more highly than Democrats; Independents were in the middle. At the same time—and seemingly unrelated–they found that how people make purchasing decisions affected how loyal they were to Bush in second term. They wrote in the Huffington Post:

“Republicans who were stickier in the consumer market were more likely to rate Bush favorably in 2005. Democrats who tended to stick with the same products were also more likely to rate Bush favorably. Even though they were from the opposition party, these Democrats stuck with the status quo and stood by the president.

President Bush and President Obama are very different politicians, and support very different policies. Yet people’s view about each president’s job performance is driven by the TRAITS they reveal as consumers. Major political fans, the people who declare a party identity, will continue to pull for their man. People who are willing to take risks, change their mind, gather information, and care about the community are political independents and more likely to have reactions in between Democrats and Republicans.”

The authors also say you can predict how your friends will react to President Obama by looking at two things: whether they’re loyal to products and if they crave information. If the news and events are favorable to Obama in the future, people with a high taste for Information will be more likely to rate him favorably, they say.  And those friends that are generally sticky in their decisions are also more likely to approve of the president’s performance—so if they have a favorite car brand, dishwashing detergent, fast food place—it’s a pretty safe bet, say de Marchi and Hamilton, that they will also be “sticky” about the president.