New Cultural Creatives Survey

U.S. POPULATION TAKES ON GREEN VALUES

The LOHAS market size was originally based on Paul Ray’s market research showing that Cultural Creatives are the LOHAS market’s core consumer group, the glue that holds all our markets together. Cultural Creatives are identified in surveys by their values, beliefs, and lifestyles rather than their purchase of particular products, according to studies of LOHAS consumers by the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI).

Ray surveys values because they are excellent predictors of what people actually buy and what messages about products and services will be best received. Two key dimensions of values identify Cultural Creatives: green and socially responsible values, and personal development values. In a 1999 baseline survey, Cultural Creatives were 26% of American adults. Now Cultural Creatives have grown to 33%. Over the last 22 years, surveys of Cultural Creatives have shown the same slow, steady growth. Values are slow to change, unlike opinions, and the business cycle has very little effect on them (though it affects people’s ability to pay for what they want). Values changes drive long-term developments in the economy. Now green values are dramatically on top.

Paul Ray’s latest survey shows that there has been a massive increase in support by Americans for major action on ecological sustainability and climate change, and support for initiatives of the green economic transition that the Obama administration intends to promote. Just a few years ago, support for these actions was in the 40 to 50% range, and now it is in the 70 to 80% range. This is not just a transitory change in opinions, but a change in basic values and beliefs. This change has been led by the Cultural Creatives, who are the key opinion leaders on these issues in the U.S. Recent surveys in Europe and Japan show very comparable numbers, but just not the dramatic shift we’ve seen here. We’ve finally caught up to them.

This survey focused on how Cultural Creatives, and the American population, view the climate crisis, new national directions, and the kind of citizen-oriented politics that the Obama campaign demonstrated. It was fielded by research firm TNS Global for Paul Ray in March 2008. The sample size was 2,000 and was representative of the adult population of the U.S. It will be one of the focal points of a November 2009 State of the World Forum conference in Washington, D.C., on positive actions we can take on the global climate crisis. (You can download a briefing paper on the survey from www.integralpartnerships.com or www.worldforum.org.) The survey was sponsored by State of the World Forum and Wisdom University.

The current survey shows that since 1999, personal development values have scarcely changed, while green and socially responsible values have surged to new heights. That suggests that markets for personal development products are likely to remain at approximately their present level with slow future growth. But the huge upsurge in green values supports a full-scale greening of the economy. This is a revolution both in consumer demand and political demand. It perfectly matches the green economy initiatives that are built into the Obama administration’s economic stimulus package. This change reflects both the science news on the threat of global warming and the massive ad campaign that accompanied Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” which awakened many Americans to just how serious it really is.

What the data shows is not just an awareness of the broad problems, but an intense moral concern to do more to care for future generations and the condition of the whole planet. It also shows a demand that the destruction of the Earth’s ecologies be stopped and that action be taken by both business and government on these issues. Survey respondents also stated a serious intolerance for further lies, evasions, and foot dragging by corporations and government officials on these issues. What’s more, it shows a willingness to personally get involved in doing something about the issues and a demand for major government programs to combat global warming. Most of all, the data shows a desire for a clean and green, sustainable economy, and full support for businesses and governments who are moving in that direction. And finally, it shows a movement among a majority of Americans beyond nationalism toward an identification of themselves as “citizens of the planet.” This is well beyond anything we’ve ever seen before.

This all suggests that once the worst of the recession is over, there will be a major surge toward a whole new level of the consumer values and product developments that LOHAS has always represented. It is clear that there is an almost perfect match between consumer demand and the clean, green energy and products that the people of planet Earth will need to survive the coming years. Good news for the LOHAS market!

CULTURAL CREATIVES CONCERNS:

Key Global Warming Concerns
94.2% - 82.5% agree we must stop the destruction of the globe’s farmlands, forests, and oceans
93.5% - 82.5% agree humans need to have more respect and reverence for nature
82.3% - 63.0% agree too many people refuse to accept the seriousness of global warming
79.5% - 62.0% agree the Earth is headed for an environmental catastrophe unless we change

Need for Action
93.6% - 81.3% agree corporations must take more responsibility for their impact on global warming
93.0% - 80.2% agree we should change the way we live now so future generations have decent lives
83.9% - 67.8% agree the media should do more to educate people about environmental problems
83.2% - 73.4% agree we have a moral duty to protect all God’s creatures from extinction
82.6% - 60.4% agree America needs to take the lead on global warming, not drag its feet
77.6% - 51.0% agree I’m willing to do volunteer work as part of a commitment to help save the planet
75.5% - 71.8% agree it is our sacred obligation to care for God’s creation
71.5% - 55.4% agree we need solar and wind power for global warming, not coal and nuclear

Our Relationship to the Planet
96.5% - 87.1% agree we need to treat the planet as a living system
90.9% - 75.4% agree people need to work for the good of the planet, for it is our only home
86.1% - 70.5% agree I see myself as a citizen of Planet Earth as well as an American
85.9% - 68.1% agree at this time in history we need to see this is all one planet and one humanity
85.2% - 67.8% agree with those ecologists who see Earth as a giant living organism