New Research Affirms Patriotism of Millennials and GenXer’s Alive and Well but Different

• 

Agile On Demand Market Research

Edward Snowden divided GenXer’s and Millennials, with GenXer’s tending to view his actions as unpatriotic and Millennials seeing his actions as patriotic.

Denver, CO (PRWEB) July 03, 2013

GutCheck, a leader in on-demand agile market research, today released its first annual Independence Day research on patriotism. The good news, according to GutCheck, is that Millennials (aged 21-31) and GenXer’s (aged 32-47) both are predominately patriotic, with GenXer’s (85 percent) expressing greater degrees of patriotism than Millennials (71 percent). However, Edward Snowden divided GenXer’s and Millennials, with GenXer’s tending to view his actions as unpatriotic and Millennials seeing his actions as patriotic.

GutCheck engaged an Instant Research Panel (IRC) June 25-26 to determine what patriotism (“love of country and willingness to sacrifice for it”) means to each of these demographic groups. According to the research, Millennials who expressed neutral or anti-patriotic sentiments (29 percent) did so largely out of frustration with the government, which was consistent with their view of Edward Snowden’s actions as patriotic.

Millennials were more likely to see Snowden’s actions as “patriotic” (50 percent) as compared to GenXer’s (27 percent). Millennials comments included:
“The government does not have a right to violate the privacy of its citizens”; “The country was founded on preserving natural freedoms for its people...not protecting the secretive acts of its government”; “What Snowden did opened many Americans eyes to the fact that our government does not value our freedom and rights.”

While Gen Xer’s tended to view his actions as “unpatriotic” (73 percent): “He is selling his country;” “He is a traitor to our country;” “He compromised our national security.”

Addition IRC panel member comments on patriotism included:
Millennial:
Very Patriotic: "I greatly appreciate the freedoms preserved for the people in my country and am more than willing to sacrifice my time, my money, and if need be, my life, to preserve those freedoms."
Somewhat Patriotic: "I love my country and there is nowhere else in the world I would rather live. I'm not ignorant enough to assume our government or cultural way of living is the absolute best for everyone in the world, but for us it works and I support that and the sacrifices other have made for it."
Not Patriotic: “Being an American today is like having an alcoholic sister – I love her but I am not happy with what she is doing with her life.”

Gen Xer:
Very Patriotic: "Patriotism means willingness to sacrifice your freedom and even your life…to fight for what you believe in.”
Somewhat Patriotic: "I would sacrifice my life for my freedom because we are all born with free will. I would not sacrifice my life for this government and its wars of greed and lies."
Neutral: "I love what my country is SUPPOSED to be, but not how it currently is. I think we're all sacrificing plenty already. If you're asking would I fight for my country - No. We no longer fight for freedom or ideals. We fight for imperialism and profits."

For a complete recap of the research findings, see the GutCheck infographic at http://gutcheckit.com/education/.

About GutCheck
GutCheck delivers a unique agile research solution that gives marketers, researchers, and agencies rich, consumer insights without spending weeks waiting for answers. The company won the top prize at DEMO in March 2011, and today, customers work with GutCheck to refine product concepts, optimize marketing messaging and decipher social media sentiment to help them make brand business decisions faster and smarter. For more information: http://gutcheckit.com.

PDF Print