America This Week Wave 231

America This Week: “Kamala Has Come With The Lifeboats”, Parenting is a $60k Job, Rise of De-Influencers, and Doctors Have Doubts About A.I.

The latest trends in society and culture from The Harris Poll

Things look smoother here than after last week’s Crowdstrike debacle. Curious, we asked Americans who was to blame. Our America This Week, conducted July 25th to 27th among 2,132 Americans, found a slight majority (53%) faulted Crowdstrike while (47%) placed the responsibility for the outage on the “blue screen of death” affected brands like Microsoft, Delta, United, and American. The lesson is that OEMs may be invisible to your consumer until they’re not.

With The Olympics in full swing, our new Sports Momentum Index from Allison Sports and The Harris Poll Sports Practice finds that the top five sports Americans plan to watch are gymnastics, swimming, basketball, track and field, and diving. And brands are medaling too: (48%) of Olympic viewers say they notice the games’ sponsors, and (38%) are more likely to support them. Check out the findings here and the launch of Shaun White’s Snow League here.

This week, we’ll delve into four new Harris polls that caught our interest:

• First, the July Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll show a momentum swing to the blue side.
• Next, while everyone knew parenting was a full-time job, we’ve calculated what it would pay (not that hugs aren’t nice, too).
• Then, de-influencers are the new Gen Z trend of fighting overconsumption.
• Lastly, while AI has great promise in healthcare, Doctors are worried it could reduce the human touch.

Harris Re-Energizes The Dems: Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll

After an unprecedented month in American politics, Harris Poll Chairman Mark Penn gives us a first look at public opinion on the new race covered by The Hill.

• Four in five (79%) U.S. voters approve of Biden’s decision to step down, and (55%) approve of his endorsement of Harris (Democrats: 92%).
• Harris is performing better among minority voters, with the support of a plurality of women (48%), Black (67%), and Hispanic (47%) voters.
• Compared to June, more Democrats say they would vote for the Democratic candidate (+5 points), while fewer Independents are unsure of who they would vote for (-10 points). Most undecided Independent voters say they would vote for Harris (Harris: +7 points; Trump: +3 points).
• Yet, (24%) of voters remain undecided on who they will vote for (DEM: 20%, GOP: 17%, IND: 41%).
• Download the full poll in PowerPoint here.

Takeaway: “The Democratic Party has recovered from what was a Titanic — the iceberg of age was sinking them rapidly,” said Mark Penn, Harris Chairman and Stagwell CEO. “Kamala Harris has come with lifeboats to put the race back where it was.”

Parenting Would Pay $60k: Skylight-Harris Poll

Parenting takes work – so much so in our new survey with Skylight in Fast Company, it’s the equivalent of a second job.

• The mental load: On average, parents of minors said managing a household occupies (63%) of their brain space on a given day and totals as much as 30 hours per week.
• This time and intensity is the equivalent of $60,000 per year if it was a paying job.
• Scheduling anxiety: (81%) of parents said a family scheduling issue impacted them at work, and (58%) said they spend more time managing parenting logistics than experiencing the joys of parenting.
• The gender gap: More mothers are the default parent (78% v. fathers: 58%) contacted first by schools (80% v. 60%) and children themselves (86% v. 62%). In dual-income households, mothers are still the primary caregivers (64% v. 40%).

Takeaway: “Our recent study with Skylight illuminates the staggering unseen burden of the mental load on parents – akin to a full-time job, unrecognized and unpaid, worth $60,000 annually,” says Harris Poll’s chief strategy officer Libby Rodney. “Parents are not only overworked but are also missing out on the joys of parenting and their partners due to their immense mental load.”

Here Come The De-Influencers: Credit Karma-Harris Poll

The trend of social media users revolting against influencers has impacted consumer buying habits, finds our new study with Credit Karma in Fast Company.

• Nearly 2 in 5 Americans (38%) have purchased products advertised on social media in the past year, with (23%) charging $1k+.
• Is spending slowing? Yet, over two-thirds (69%) of American social media users say they have been de-influenced, meaning they have chosen not to purchase items on social media. The top reason was that they didn’t trust influencers pushing products (32%).
• Even more Gen Z (88%) have been de-influenced, with (38%) attributing it to unhealthy levels of overconsumption.
• Instead, Gen Z (90%) report shopping second-hand, with motivating reasons being to fight fast fashion (22%) and a desire to be environmentally conscious (28%).
• De-influencers are growing on TikTok, and the NYT calls it an under-consumption core.

Takeaway: Far more trends on TikTok end up becoming mere blips than full-on movements. Influencers help spread the latest craze far and wide before inevitably moving on to a new fixation – today’s mob wife aesthetic turning into tomorrow’s “that time everyone was super into sea shanties for some reason.” Yet, de-influencing is still going strong, however. It’s a movement plenty of influencers probably wish would have just been a blip.

Doctors Fear A.I. Could Get Between Them and Their Patients: Athenahealth-Harris Poll

Patients want technology like A.I. to help them live longer, but their doctors remain skeptical, according to our latest research with Athenahealth, featured in Fast Company.

• The A.I. doctor will see you now: (83%) of physicians believe AI could eventually reduce many healthcare problems.
• Patients want A.I. success: Previous MetLife-Harris Poll research found that (72%) globally are interested in using advanced technology to live longer.
• Yet today, A.I.’s benefits aren’t clear: (40%) of physicians are unsure how they feel about A.I.’s benefits, with (39%) optimistic and (21%) pessimistic.
• Hype overshadows reality: (60%) cite the loss of human touch as their biggest worry regarding using A.I., and (40%) believe that A.I. is overhyped and cannot meet expectations.

Takeaway: Artificial intelligence has the potential to be a critical tool to help deliver exceptional and personalized healthcare. But what healthcare does next will determine whether these tools can move beyond initial hype and stick around to effect lasting change and cure the complexities of the healthcare system.