With Trump and Brexit in the ascendency, it was perhaps understandable that the last few years have not been a happy time for liberals.  Research from Rice University finds, however, that liberals are also less happy consumers than their conservative peers.

The researchers assessed 326,000 consumers from across the US across a wide range of industries, including restaurants, education, and industrial goods, with liberals consistently less happy than conservatives.

“Consistently, results showed that conservatives are more satisfied than liberals with the products and services they purchased. This is profoundly important for companies and businesses whose goal is to provide customer value by satisfying their customers,” the researchers say.

Satisfied customers

Achieving satisfied customers is something of a holy grail for any consumer business, with data from Mittal suggesting that a 1-point increase in satisfaction (on a 7-point scale) results in a 12% spike in sales.  These consumers tend to make more repeat purchases, are happier to recommend the business to others, and take less time to service.

The researchers measured not only customer satisfaction for each consumer but also their political affiliation and identity.  Political identity was measured in various ways, such as asking people to share the political party they supported, their voting record, their TV news viewing habits, and self-ratings on a liberal-conservative spectrum.

Across the board, satisfaction ratings appeared higher for conservatives than for liberals.  The researchers argue that the outcomes were down to the higher likelihood of conservatives to believe in free will, which means they feel in control of their own outcomes.  This in turn means they trust their own purchasing decisions more and subsequently feel happier with their choices.

“Some companies have embraced corporate political activism to satisfy their customers,” the researchers conclude. “Such a strategy is almost sure to backfire because it forces companies to choose sides, whether liberal or conservative.

“Instead of choosing sides, companies should relentlessly focus on increasing customer satisfaction to drive sales,” Mittal said. “Doing so will be appreciated by their conservative customers more than their liberal customers, but both will be more loyal, engage in higher word of mouth and recommend the business more.”