The politics of eating out
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( Les Dunseith, Los Angeles Times / August 3, 2012 ) Each bubble in this chart represents an American chain restaurant (or in one case, a store). The relative bubble sizes are based on the percentage of American adults surveyed by Scarborough Research who reported patronizing a particular outlet in the previous 30 days (except the Whole Foods bubble, which is based on reporting of the previous seven days' consumption). About 42% of respondents, for example, reported going to McDonald's, while just 2% reported going to Hooters. About 11% said they'd eaten at Chick-fil-A. The bubbles were placed on the chart according to what those surveyed reported to be their political leanings and their likelihood of voting. Thus, a chain with a clientele that is heavily Republican and likely to vote would be placed in the upper right, whereas a chain whose clientele skewed Democratic and unlikely to vote would end up on the lower left. So what can we glean? Chick-fil-A's customers are among the most Republican in the country, but they're less likely to vote than Cracker Barrel diners. Well-to-do urban Democrats are buying takeout and groceries at Whole Foods, and they vote. Socioeconomic status, urbanism and regional geography shape the partisanship and voting behavior of restaurant customers. High-turnout voters of both parties are more likely to be found at sit-down chains, where they can afford the higher tabs. |
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Add / View comments | Discussion FAQCracker Barrel, the most Republican of the restaurants, if you will, has locations in every state but Alaska, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming. So maybe there's something to your hypothesis.
Church's Chicken should be merged with Popeye's, as they merged in 1989. Merged or not, they're the most Democratic of the the restaurants. They also have locations in almost every US state.
What other factor could make Cracker Barrel exceedingly Republican and a couple of fried chicken joints exceedingly Democratic? Here's a hint - a side at Cracker Barrel is mashed potatoes and at Church's it's fried okra.
This is among the most dangerously flawed data plots I've ever seen. The accompanying text implies a causal relationship between the politics of the consumer and the vendor. This can not be accurately deduced from the data.
Look where the giant chains (McDonald's et al) are. In a statiscally insignificant distance from the political center line (vertical). This is not because the people of both parties chose these restaurants equally. It's because these restaurants are EVERYWHERE and the country is close to 50/50. Being everywhere is going to reflect that. The restaurants on the edges that supposedly show political affinity are ONLY in SOME parts of the country. Well, surprise, surprise. Stop the presses. Some parts of the country have more folks of one political pursuasion than another. Duh.
There are at least 2 different ways the designers of this could've prevented this mistake. Apparently, they chose neither.
Looking up and down (likely, not) probably correlates to age of patrons. Another relationship known for decades. It's not a political insight that Taco Bell patrons are less likely to vote, it's a consequence of Taco Bell's patrons being younger, as if a talking dog and "4th meal" tried to hide that. ;-)
Can we plot math education vs politics next?
@DanFarfan
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Based on your graphic, high-turnout Democratic voters apparently have more sense than to eat out in the first place, preferring the healthier alternative of cooking at home to the artery-clogging/blood-flow-to-the-brain impairing side effect of fast food. Just sayin'... ;)