Last week we noted the strange correlation between supporting the Liberal Democrats and being a fan of Science Fiction – now YouGov brings you the full profile of the correlation between politics and TV choice
Using a database connecting all aspects of over 400,000 UK citizen's lives – from their personality traits to their favourite TV programmes and even their top-rated foods – YouGov are beginning to find fascinating and unusual correlations among previously unconnected data.
After picking up on the curious connection between supporting the Liberal Democrats and liking Science Fiction (books, movies and TV programmes), we extended our search into the other two main parties – and found some intriguing relationships between TV genres and politics.
The most striking result again lies with the Liberal Democrats: not only do they love Sci-Fi, but comedy is particulary appealing to them. 50% of the 100 TV programmes most identified with them are humorous. Actually, it's more than that: all of the gameshows in their top 100 (9) are humorous as well.
On the other hand, only 16% of Conservative's 100 most identifiable TV programmes are comedies; their thing is definitely drama as 43% of their top 100 are either period, crime or other kinds of drama.
Labour supporters, in contrast, are actually quite balanced, relatively speaking. They have about an even number of comedy (31) and drama (29) programmes in their top 100, and similar proportions of other TV genres.
Numbers, however, can only get you so far. Looking at the actual top 10 most Liberal Democrat, Labour or Conservative TV programmes shows us that it's not just a certain genre that defines a political group, but the kind of programme within that genre.
Liberal Democrats don't just like comedy, they like a particularly surreal and kooky kind, like Brass Eye, the IT crowd and Red Dwarf. (Click the links below to add your own ratings and opinions).
And Labour voters prefer a certain, more salt-of-the-earth style of comedy that portrays the truths of ordinary life: Phoenix Nights, The Office and The Royle Family.
Conservatives, too, have their own specific sub-genres. It's not only that they like drama more than others; the dramas that top their list are old-fashioned and sophisticated, like Downton Abbey and To the Manor Born, wheras Labour supporter's dramas are more gritty, such as Mad Men and The Wire.
So maybe politics runs much deeper than policies and principles. And perhaps we are beginning to discover the core facts that underlie the stereotypes.
