A lot of people worry about increased polarization in society. The concern is that, as we share fewer common experiences, we are less likely to be empathetic towards the needs of those with whom we share less common ground. This can be seen most in politics, but it echoes in business. Why would you want to buy from a company that does not share your values? For example, if you are what you buy some might worry that buying a Tesla generates some unpleasant connotations. This is especially in Europe that has obviously had significant problems with hard right bigots.
You Are What You Buy
A paper in Quantitative Marketing And Economics dug into consumption data from 2004 to 2023. They found that what they term mindful products (those with health or environmental claims) were much more likely to be consumed in liberal skewing areas. (They don’t mean to attach a positive or negative valence to the term mindful). In essence, ideology seemed to be connected to purchase decisions. It make sense. If you are what you buy liberals and conservatives like being different so want to buy different things.
Rising Polarization
Perhaps most interestingly, the authors found a growing divide over time. There wasn’t much difference in purchases between ideologies at the beginning of the data but it had grown to be quite noticeable by the end of the data (2023). Indeed, the differences emerge in the middle of the data.
[In their data i]deological differences are negligible through 2012 but emerge around 2013 and widen thereafter. Controlling for demographics, we find that by 2023, liberal households purchase 1.8 percentage points more mindful products by volume than conservative households — roughly 40% higher.
Guler and Singh, 2016
You may wonder why 1.8 percentage points is 40% higher — it’s because hardly anyone (liberal or conservative) was buying mindful products. That is a story for another day.
They do a bunch of robustness checks to confirm that their analysis works. They also use a more nuanced view of political alignment, dividing moderate partisans from their more full-boded compatriots.
What Causes It?
Sadly, it isn’t possible to say what causes the polarization. Still, the fact that it emerges before the rise of Donald Trump suggests the US president can’t be the only cause. It does accelerate after 2016, so he might have had an impact. The worry is that political tribes are splitting apart. That said, given most products bought by consumers, liberals or conservatives, aren’t mindful at all suggests there is still a lot of common ground in liking unhealthy, environmentally distinctive products.
For marketers the, somewhat predictable, lesson is don’t try and sell to groups in ways that don’t appeal to their values.
For more on how consumption relates to politics see https://neilbendle.com/creating-social-impact/,https://neilbendle.com/polarization-and-brand-preference/, and https://neilbendle.com/distribution-of-preferences-matters/
Read: Ali Umut Guler and Vishal Singh (2026) Polarized Consumption, Quantitative Marketing And Economics, 24 (2) In Advance
