According to Hunch Inc., food preferences vary by political ideology, and self-identification as either a conservative or liberal corresponds with food preferences and choices.
Conservatives trend towards homey, familiar, comfort foods and meat-heavy options. They are more likely than liberals to indulge in fast food and enjoy splurges like cheeseburgers or deep-dish pizza. Their idea of international food is a “mainstream” option such as Italian. Liberals are more likely to be adventuresome eaters, choosing international options such as Japanese or Thai. They eat fast food less frequently than conservatives, and when they do splurge on fast food they have a tendency to favor specialty, regional chains. Liberals are more likely to choose healthy or vegetarian alternatives when given the choice.Everyone likes romaine, but conservatives trend heavily towards iceberg and liberals prefer arugula. Conservatives are more likely to drink sugar soda but less likely to drink wine; liberals are more likely to eat vegetarian options and more frequent portions of fruit.
Findings are based on two types of aggregate, anonymized data, correlations between some of the 25 million “Teach Hunch About You” (THAY) questions which have been answered to date, and correlations between a THAY question about political ideology and user preferences for specific topic results such as cheese varieties, fast food restaurants, or what to have for lunch.Although there are plenty of food-related differences that skew by political ideology, there’s still plenty of common ground for the dinner table. So there’s no need to let a little political disagreement get in the way of a great shared meal. downloadable pdf version.