Americans See Red & Blue Divide as Media Hype, Boston University Survey Shows

Americans believe the Red vs. Blue divide portrayed by the media in the 2004 presidential election is either hype or unimportant, according to a recent online survey conducted at Boston University among 537 adults.

Boston, MA (PRWEB) June 6, 2005

Much political and media hay was made in the 2004 presidential election about a supposed split in our nation between political "Reds" and "Blues." A group of Boston University students dove into this split to see if Americans perceive a divide. The results showed a general agreement that the country is divided: only 17% percent of the respondents feel the country is united and 55% believe the country is more divided politically now than it was ten years ago. But is this divide necessarily the Red vs. Blue divide spoken of so often in the media?

A majority of Americans -- 58% -- are familiar with the Red vs. Blue debate. But the terms are relatively new, with 10% believing they've heard them prior to the 2000 presidential election, 22% reporting they heard of the Red vs. Blue divide between the 2000 and 2004 elections and 41% of adults indicating they first heard of it around the 2004 election. Television news and newspapers are cited as the two most frequent sources of information about the divide.

Not everyone who has heard of it believes it's real, however. Only 46% believe it is a real divide. Fewer still -- just 30% -- are concerned about it. Additionally, 54% blame the news media for "making a bigger deal" out of the divide than is really merited.

Yet more than two-thirds of us are willing to tag ourselves with these labels: 36% of Americans are willing to call themselves "Red" while 33% gladly take on the "Blue" label. A small 14% believe they are both Red and Blue while 17% prefer to be classified as neither.

Why are people comfortable with the labels if they don't think they matter overall? "Our results suggest it's a form of shorthand for people who strongly identify with one political movement or another," explains Professor James McQuivey who directed the students' research. "It's not that people are readying for a civil war as much as they're trying to show support for their personal political agenda."

A full 76% of self-designated Reds already know which political party they'll vote for in 2008, for example, followed closely by 69% of Blues are who equally certain. This despite the fact that both parties' candidates won't be announced for another three years. But that's about as far as people are willing to go based on their affiliation with Red or Blue thinking. Only 23% of us would wear a colored wristband to show our allegiance, just 8% of people think a state's designation of Blue or Red would ever influence their decision to move there and only 20% of people prefer to work in an environment where coworkers share their political values.

About the Survey

The survey was conducted online during the second week of March, 2005. The sample of 537 participants (235 male, 302 female) was provided by online panel company Survey Sampling International, Inc. and the survey was administered using the online survey tool, Net-MR, a service of Global Market Insite, Inc. As an online survey, the opinions reflected here only represent the two-thirds of American households with regular Internet access. For comparison, the margin of error for a randomly selected sample this size is +/- 5%.

About the College of Communication at Boston University

The College of Communication at Boston University is home to the Communication Research Center where professors train undergraduate and graduate students in the science of consumer research and analysis. This project was designed by students under the supervision of Professor James McQuivey.

# # #