Asian Americans are generally more aligned with liberal or progressive values than more conservative ones, according to “FOCUS Asian: State of Media, Entertainment, and Tech: Consumer Engagement 2023,” a new Horowitz study examining the sociopolitical attitudes of multicultural Americans.
For example, when presented with two statements related to the polarizing debate about government intervention into parental rights to provide gender-affirming care for their transgender kids, Asian Americans are almost four times more likely to agree that “parents should have the right to decide about the appropriate healthcare for their children” (55% agreed) than the opposing statement “I think the government should be able to decide about the appropriate healthcare for children” (15%). Similarly, half (50%) feel there should be separation of church and state, compared to 18% who “do not think it is a problem for political policies in the United States to be shaped by Christian values.”
Like many Americans, especially diverse Americans, the new Horowitz study finds that Asians use both their voice and their buying power to send corporate America strong messages about the values they embrace. In fact, half (49%) of Asian Americans have taken action based on a company’s alignment with sociopolitical issues. Liberal Asians are more likely than their conservative counterparts to have done so (65%, compared to 50%). This is particularly true for younger Asian Americans (18-34 year-olds), who tend to skew more liberal than their older counterparts.
Specifically, liberal Asian Americans are more likely to have stopped doing business with or spent less money with a company, called out the company negatively in conversations with friends and/or family, and/or to have signed a petition against the company they are not in alignment with, compared to their conservative counterparts.
On the other hand, conservative Asian Americans are slightly more likely than their liberal counterparts to take positive action to support a company based on its sociopolitical values by praising the company on social media and/or doing business with or spending more with the company.
The sociopolitical issues of highest concern among Asian Americans include women’s rights and the environment. In fact, the study finds that for 2 out of 3 (67%) Asian Americans, knowing that a company has policies or initiatives to protect the environment has a positive impact on their decision to buy from them. Similarly, for 6 in 10 Asian Americans, a company’s public support for a woman’s right to choose would have a positive impact on their purchase intent. On the other hand, for 1 in 4 (25%) Asian Americans, if a company made business decisions informed by its conservative religious beliefs, it would have a negative impact on their likelihood to buy.
“Though the Asian American population is smaller than other multicultural groups, they tend to have higher relative household incomes and greater buying power, so their importance to corporate America should not be underestimated. Moreover, from a sociopolitical perspective, Asian Americans – and especially younger Asian Americans — are very aligned with other diverse audiences in terms of the values they espouse. It is increasingly evident that corporate social responsibility cannot be divorced from business decision-making for companies to grow in today’s business environment,” noted Adriana Waterston, EVP and Insights and Strategy Lead for Horowitz Research.
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