By Mike Maley
Leading up to the 2022 midterm elections in the United States, Americans feel stronger than ever that Democrats, Republicans and Independents are in conflict with each other. On many issues and for many people, this is certainly the case. But what about for conscious consumers in America with different political views? Do they share any common goals when it comes to the impact on the world they hope to have with their purchases?
We sampled data from the Cluey community to see what issues were most important to them, broken down by social, environmental, and political impacts. Looking at three different groups of responders – politically left-leaning, right-leaning, and independents – here were the impacts most important to our users:
Social impacts
For users who identify as left-leaning, 80% described a brands social impact as ‘very important to them.’ Meanwhile centrists and right-leaning responders said social impacts were very important to them 59% and 37% respectively. Compared to environmental and political impacts, the importance of social impacts of their purchases showed the biggest difference between left-leaning and right-leaning users.
Political impacts
72% of right-leaning users said the political impacts of their purchases were very important to them, compared to 69% of left-leaning users. Just 39% of centrists, meanwhile, shared that sentiment.
Environmental impacts
From the data, we see that the impact area where there is the largest common denominator amongst all users regardless of political belief is on the environment. 86% of left-leaning users, 76% of independents, and 43% of right-leaning users said the environmental impact of their purchases was very important to them.
Top issue themes
Users also had the opportunity to write in additional issues that were most important to them. Answers ranged from the war in Ukraine to labor concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. But across political parties, these were the top six issue themes that Cluey users found important:
Candidates running for office this election cycle would benefit remembering that the “conscious consumer” movement is growing, and for voters: No matter what your politics are, the way you spend your money directly impacts the social, environmental and political environment around you.
We made Cluey to ensure everyone can align their purchases with their values, and collectively change how corporations impact our world.
Based on an anonymized sampling of 1,359 Cluey users. If republishing, feel free to contact the Cluey team directly for additional questions or clarity on the data for this report.
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Mike Maley is the Director of Content Strategy at Cluey. He is an Emmy award-winning production leader, and is excited to be aligning his skillset with Cluey’s impact-oriented mission.
