When people talk about “values” and “values voters,” they’re often referring to values surrounding tradition: carrying on the attitudes of previous generations when it comes to gender roles, faith, outlook, and financial stability.
So to understand the relationship that American ad filterers— the 95% of users that choose to run an ad blocker but have also consented to see ad—have to so-called “traditional values,” we looked at the question posed by GlobalWebIndex (GWI).
GWI asked ad filterers, “Which of the following is important to you?” about the following four categories:
- • Being financially secure
• Having a positive attitude
• Maintaining traditional gender roles
• My faith/spirituality
So how do ad filterers fare? Are they keeping the traditions of their parents and grandparents alive, or seeking out new values?
74.6% of ad filterers value financial stability, and they’re almost as impassioned about having a positive attitude, with 73.4% responding that a positive attitude is important. They’re also interested in faith and spirituality: 43.6% respond that it’s a vital part of their lives.
But as far as gender goes, they’re forward-thinking. Only about 17.7% value maintaining traditional gender roles.
Traditional Roles + Political Roles
Of the categories responded to, the most consistently accurate gauge of political affiliation is answering “My faith/spirituality […] is important to me.” In general, faith and spirituality is more important to Republicans than Democrats.
According to Pew Research, a mere 9% of Republicans consider themselves “unaffiliated” with any particular religion. But does that mean that the 43.6% of ad filterers who replied “My faith/spirituality is important to me,” most likely vote Republican?
Not quite.
As it turns out, the percentage of religiously unaffiliated Democrats isn’t remarkably higher: only 14% of Democrats consider themselves either “Atheist,” “Agnostic” or believe in “Nothing in particular.”
This shows something we’ve observed throughout the analysis of this study: even the trends and values that end up being mostly strongly correlated with one half of the voting public affect the other half of the voting public significantly.
When it comes to values of all sorts—those that can be best described as traditional, those that signal selflessness and altruism, and even those that indicate strong ambition and hunger for success—we’ve learned that stated values don’t necessarily correspond with voting practices.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zQ7RoPlLnUY_XSIKGlACZFv64OM67WmHKo568juTF9c/edit#gid=788261264We take that as an indication of a few things: that American ad filterers are an eclectic group, who feel that a number of aspects in their lives are all worthy of value, that values exist independent of political parties, and that certain values are considered important across the board, whether you count yourself as Democrat, Republican, or independent.***
AAX is devoted to knowing everything there is to know about ad filterers. In one previous study we looked into what makes this demographic unique, another study examined their purchasing habits, and our most recent study dug deep into ad filterer motivation: the reasons ad filterers avoid advertisements, and how and why those reasons change.
Our passion for all things ad filterer is why we’ve turned our attention to an issue that’s capturing everyone’s attention: ad filterers’ political profiles. We’ve looked through the fascinating findings over at the GlobalWebIndex (GWI) to compile a new study—American Ad Blocking Users’ Political Profile—available for free download in May 2022.
- Data, Studies, Insights
