Deep data: Abortion foes are dessert fans
Opponents of legalized abortion are far more likely to be candy lovers and enjoy sweet backed goods than abortion-rights advocates -- or so Big Data says.
A new study by digital marketing firm, Rocket Fuel, mashed up some political survey data with consumer digital profiles to learn more about the layers of interests of people expressing various political views. They came away with some interesting findings, though it is hard to know what these results mean.
The study took surveys from 2,800 registered voters in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Wisconsin and North Carolina -- swing states -- on a handful of political issues, including abortion, gay marriage, and immigration.
The firm was able to match the responses with other consumer data to "identify behaviors and interests that strongly correlate with particular political points of view, and can look at how that data might be used by political advertisers to make more efficient advertising decisions." This is how Big Data works in modern politics: They don't know exactly who you are, but they can compile lots and lots of data about you so they target ads to people who match your digital fingerprints.
Rocket Fuel found that people who opposed abortion were far more likely than supporters to visit dessert pages on cooking or food websites. They were also much more likely to be stay-at-home moms, while abortion supporters were far more likely to be "a female head of household" and a "running enthusiast."
When asked whether children of undocumented immigrants should be allowed to attend public schools, responses appear to be tied to the travel habits of the respondent. Opponents of public school for undocumented kids were much more likely to be motorcycle enthusiasts and love fishing; supporters tended to be movie goers with a propensity for European travel.
"We are trying to figure out the best way to reach the people who are the right people for (political) messages," said Rocket Fuel director of research and insights, Robert Jones. The study shows "the power of aggregated knowledge of these groups."
Some of the insights are obvious or intuitive -- opponents of gay marriage are far more likely to be religious and have a veteran living in their household -- but some are less so: The same gay marriage opponents were more likely to take a road trip with their family than gay marriage supporters.
Check out the whole study at Rocket Fuel's website here.