About a month ago, CivicScience studied the plummeting favorability of Chick-fil-A among Liberals over the previous six months. CivicScience is revisiting this topic to see if the restaurant chain’s recent decision to withdraw donations to two charitable organizations this week have shifted public opinion.
A CivicScience survey of more than 4,000 Chick-fil-A interested diners showed 60% of people will not change how much they eat at Chick-fil-A given the news. The “more and less likely” respondents were almost evenly split – 21% more likely and 20% less likely.
A familiar pattern emerges under the lens of political leanings. Liberals at a 42% rate said they were more likely to eat at Chick-fil-A given the recent news. That’s double the amount of Moderates and five times the amount of Conservatives. This is a tremendous conversion given the very poor opinion the majority of Democrats have purportedly had for the company.
Thirty percent of Conservative Chick-fil-A lovers said they were less likely to eat there, clearly a little miffed by the company’s corporate decisions.
The question is, will Chick-fil-A see any shift in its patronage? It’s possible, given a greater percentage of Liberals moved camps than Conservatives did, but it’s too early to tell. It’s also worth noting that 65% of Moderates said Chick-fil-A’s charitable giving won’t change how much they eat there.
At least for now, Liberals can pull into the drive-through at lunch today with a little less guilt to indulge in some of that deep-fried goodness our country knows and loves.
