An odd little survey reported by the BBC shows the disconnect between audience intention and audience action, as well as the sad state of surveying in decision-making. The study concludes that tons of people have intentions to attend more arts events in the coming year, but few have shown any effort to actually do so.
Here’s the summary results from the survey of UK citizens:
About 90% of the 1,000 respondents said they would aim to see more theatre, opera and exhibitions in 2004….Only one in 10 went to the ballet or opera in 2003, despite research suggesting nearly 70% of UK citizens think they are ‘cultured.’
There are so many opportunities to question the study and its conclusion, it’s hard to know where to begin. Let’s start with the most obvious: what people say in response to a survey and what they actually do are often completely disconnected. Just think about it, if I walked up to you and asked ‘In 2004, do you plan to attend more ballet performances or less? More theater or less? More exhibitions or less?’ how would you respond?
Assume that you perceive yourself to be a thoughtful, cultured individual (which apparently 70 percent of the responders believed). And assume I won’t ask you to back it up by actually buying a ticket or making any monetary commitment to your answer.
It recalls the great line by policy researchers Becky Pettit and Paul DiMaggio in their review of public support of the arts in America (available here): ‘To summarize briefly, we found that support for federal funding of the arts is a yard wide and an inch deep.’ In other words, lots of people are happy to voice their support for arts and culture in federal funding, but few would actually be willing to allocate their own tax money to do so.
In response to the results, the director of the Artsworld TV channel that did the survey made the classic conceptual jump to suggest that the answer to that massive demand but limited action was television (recall my recent post suggesting if you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail):
‘As a cultured nation it is clear that we are eager to experience the arts, yet for various reasons are unable to attend live performances…..For those who want to be cultured but simply don’t have the time, opera on the box is now a real alternative to a box at the opera,’ she said.
To me, a study suggesting that 9 in 10 want to buy more of a product, but only 1 in 10 actually buy it shows a fairly deep gulf between intent and action, and a fairly weak link between wanting more and actually buying more. Instead of pushing out to empty couches through the television set (we’ve seen so many try and fail), it might be more worthwhile to dig deeper into why these 90 percent attribute value to cultural experience, and what would make them put their energy where their good intentions are.
Thanks to Mark Nerenhausen for pointing me to the article. Thanks to anyone else out there that cares to comment.
