Mindset Media today released a Mindset Profile of Mac users, which the company generated from a recent study conducted using Nielsen’s Online panel.
According to Mindset Media, Mac enthusiasts descending in droves upon Macworld Expo San Francisco this week to see the latest Apple innovations are apt to have a lot in common with the open-minded, liberal population they will find there. The study, with a robust sample of 7,500 respondents, revealed that people who are highly open-minded or, in Mindset Media parlance, “Openness 5’s”, are 60 percent more likely than people in the general population to have purchased a Mac. These purchasers are also more liberal, less modest, and more assured of their own superiority than the population at large.
Mindset Media defines Openness 5’s as those who seek rich, varied and novel experiences, believing that imagination and intellectual curiosity contribute to a life well lived. They are receptive to their own inner feelings and may feel both happiness and unhappiness more intensely than others.
“In a competitive market, like the one for personal computers, many brands compete for the same demographic, and what separates the winners from the losers is often the ability to identify and reach the right psychographic,” said Sarah Welch, COO and co-founder of Mindset Media, in the press release. “For the first time, marketers with brands that have distinctive Mindset Profiles, like Apple, can directly reach the people with the personality and attitudes that love what they sell.”
Mindset Media is the internet ad network for brands. Using its proprietary psychographic standard, Mindset Media enables brand advertisers to target millions of people with the personality traits that fit their brands in online media buys. The company works in partnership with Nielsen Online to develop consumer profiles that help brand marketers specify their psychographic targets.
Source: Mindset Media
Oh no! That awful “L” word? This will go several pages.
It’s liberals who have the superiority complex. Not just Mac owners.
I can feel the love brewing already.
What happened here? Sorry, I was looking in the mirror and admiring my smug superiority.
Mac users are more liberal?
I doubt it. Mac users make more money, pay more taxes, get pissed off at government spending practices and become more fiscally conservative.
Now, if they said Mac users are better looking, they’d be right. I am the exception that makes the rule on that one.
I mean, compared to me, you’re all pretty much philistines anyway.
Liberals and leftists (like Randy Newman) are anti-Capitalists, anti-corporate America, and anti-American.
But, when it comes to gathering all that dirty money from the stellar growth in AAPL (a perfect picture of the wonders of American Capitalism), they are as happy as can be to rake it in.
So, libs, get over yourself – your actions speak louder than your rhetoric.
Wow, they figured all that out about me just by my computer purchase???
Some of us are quite conservative, realize that “open-mindedness” is a myth and we know we are superior. We are superior because we look at the choices and select the best, which makes us superior to the many that simply buy what they have at the office, or that a friend has. Though we may not be superior as in being more intelligent, but the very face that we chose the mac shows that we are better at using our intelligence!
P.S. Last chance to buy AAPL below $160 – again.
This is going to get so nasty…
Actually, that is small “l” liberal, not big “L” Liberal. You’ll find that many big “C” Conservatives are quite small “l” liberal. Just look at the out of wedlock teen pregnancies and divorce rates for big “C” Conservative states. Smacks highly of very liberal behaviors.
Bur I think that much of big “C” Conservative behavior is grounded in low self-esteem. Why else would they spend Sundays and Wednesday evenings supporting a system that tells them how bad they are?
Please, before you all go into your “I am not liberal so therefore this is not true” rant, please understand that they are talking statistics here. While you may be surveying yourself and your buds, they probably did a bit more research than you. That’s their job.
If someone says “Most Americans are white males” and you say “Wait a minute! I am a black female. This must be wrong!” then you are doing the same thing.
And to Strange But Interesting – you need to understand that not everyone that disagrees with you is anti-American. We disagree on issues, but that doesn’t make us anti-American. You sound like Dubya and Rove – if you’re not with us then you are the enemy. Please, get over it.
Where did they survey the people?
If at Macworld, then that is a very slanted Mac group. The diehards. I’ve been to some of the past Geek gatherings and I’ll tell you what, it’s a differnet crowd.
also, before the political spin begins, do yourself a favor and read the article and look up the word “liberal” in the dictionary. hell just mouse however and “ctrl apple d”.
see, not that objectionable.
I use to not like the extreme left or right.
But know I appreciate both extremes. They help us remember who we are and help perform a “check and balances” type service.
Well of course we think we’re better than everyone else. It comes from using that superior OS. As far as the liberal thing goes, personally, i’m a moderate, and have nothing against liberals, and honestly, those of you who hate liberals because they’re liberals, because of their political beliefs, you sicken me. You are the ones who cause so much animosity between parties and political beliefs, and truly, threatening the unity of the country. Let others believe what they want, and don’t belittle others beliefs. What’s worse is that because of people like you, this article could end up hurting apple from that liberal part. Get over it, and get over yourselves. Pigs.
Dictionary
liberal |ˈlib(ə)rəl|
adjective
1 open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values : they have more liberal views toward marriage and divorce than some people.
• favorable to or respectful of individual rights and freedoms : liberal citizenship laws.
• (in a political context) favoring maximum individual liberty in political and social reform : a liberal democratic state.
• ( Liberal) of or characteristic of Liberals or a Liberal Party.
• ( Liberal) (in the UK) of or relating to the Liberal Democrat Party : the Liberal leader.
• Theology regarding many traditional beliefs as dispensable, invalidated by modern thought, or liable to change.
2 [ attrib. ] (of education) concerned mainly with broadening a person’s general knowledge and experience, rather than with technical or professional training.
3 (esp. of an interpretation of a law) broadly construed or understood; not strictly literal or exact : they could have given the 1968 Act a more liberal interpretation.
4 given, used, or occurring in generous amounts : liberal amounts of wine had been consumed.
• (of a person) giving generously : Sam was too liberal with the wine.
noun
a person of liberal views.
• ( Liberal) a supporter or member of a Liberal Party.
DERIVATIVES
liberalism |-ˌlizəm| noun
liberalist |-rəlist| noun
liberalistic |ˌlib(ə)rəˈlistik| adjective
liberally adverb
liberalness noun
ORIGIN Middle English : via Old French from Latin liberalis, from liber ‘free (man).’ The original sense was [suitable for a free man,] hence [suitable for a gentleman] (one not tied to a trade), surviving in liberal arts. Another early sense [generous] ( compare with sense 4 ) gave rise to an obsolete meaning [free from restraint,] leading to sense 1 (late 18th cent.).
Thesaurus
liberal
adjective
1 the values of a liberal society tolerant, unprejudiced, unbigoted, broad-minded, open-minded, enlightened; permissive, free, free and easy, easygoing, libertarian, indulgent, lenient. antonym narrow-minded, bigoted.
2 a liberal social agenda progressive, advanced, modern, forward-looking, forward-thinking, progressivist, enlightened, reformist, radical. antonym reactionary, conservative.
3 a liberal education wide-ranging, broad-based, general.
4 a liberal interpretation of divorce laws flexible, broad, loose, rough, free, general, nonliteral, nonspecific, imprecise, vague, indefinite. antonym strict, to the letter.
5 a liberal coating of paint abundant, copious, ample, plentiful, generous, lavish, luxuriant, profuse, considerable, prolific, rich; literary plenteous. antonym scant.
6 they were liberal with their cash generous, openhanded, unsparing, unstinting, ungrudging, lavish, free, munificent, bountiful, beneficent, benevolent, bighearted, philanthropic, charitable, altruistic, unselfish; literary bounteous. antonym careful, miserly.
If you’re wondering where you may have seen this, it means you may have opened the OSX dictionary.
I think I may have made several “points.”
Strange But Interesting…
Well, your name is probably only 50% accurate!
If open-mindedness is a quality of a potential Macintosh owner, it surprises me that you can confuse liberalism with anti-capitalism, or indeed that you can conflate anti-Americanism with being anti-corporate America. By doing so, you practically beg people to equate American values with a sort of crypto-fascism, which – in my idealised view – is not an accurate representation of the values on which your country was founded.
America is supposed to be a celebration of practical individualism, where people who work hard are rewarded for their efforts in what should be a meritocracy; cheerleading for Coca-Cola or Exxon-Mobil, as if they were some sort of cipher for American nationalism, merely replaces the fealty your country used to pay mine with some sort of unquestioning allegiance to people for whom you never have and never will vote.
You may be comfortable with the CEOs of the Fortune 500 running your country, but I would argue that your Founding Fathers would probably be spinning in their graves at the state of your democracy (don’t get me wrong, the UK has as large a problem so we’re no better) and at your assertion that the individual has to unquestioningly support the “corporate-state”.
@ lurker
So what you’re saying is that there are liberal Conservatives and conservative Liberals? Just as there are conservative Conservatives and liberal Liberals?
Liberal just means open minded. Its all a matter of degree. Just because you are conservative doesn’t mean nothing liberal ever enters your bed…errrr….head.
Mac users are generally open minded, smater, better looking and our dicks are bigger!!!!
@C1…you can call me Phil. Just don’t call me late for dinner.
It seems that what folks hate (both liberal and conservative) are caricatures of their opponents which have very little to do with reality. Conservatives hate the cartoon hippy-dippy liberal and the Liberals hate the cartoon greedy corporate rich man. I myself have never met either of these cartoon characters in real life.
oh cripes…I wish smater meant a subtle intellectual pun but alas. it simply means I prematurely shoot off my message before I examine it.
@ MacSheikh
Stop it!
You’re making this “issue” look silly.