A few weeks ago, there was discussion of the latest of Donald Trump's dubiously qualified nominees for the Federal Reserve Board, who has advocated a return to the gold standard. That led me to look for questions about public opinion on the gold standard. I found one, from sometime around 1980, but while looking, I found a totally different question that seemed more interesting.
In 2012, a poll sponsored by 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair magazine asked "Which of the following awards would you most want on your
mantle--an Oscar, a Tony, a Grammy, a Pulitzer, or an Olympic gold
medal?" The Oscar, Tony, and Grammy awards combined for 15%, 36% chose a Pulitzer, and 40% chose a gold medal.
There were some differences by age, with younger people more likely to choose an Oscar, Tony, or Grammy (which I'll call the "popular culture" awards) and older people a Pulitzer. There were also educational differences, in the same direction. For self-rated ideology:
Popular Pulitzer Gold
Liberal 13% 43% 37%
Moderate 18% 42% 33%
Conservative 15% 26% 50%
There are a lot of Pulitzer prizes, but I think that the ones for journalism are best known, so these differences could reflect conservative suspicion of the media. It could also be a general orientation to "intellectualism" (see this post) or maybe a conservative attraction to the idea of representing the nation. Conservative politicians and media figures also criticize popular culture and "Hollywood," but there are no clear ideological differences in preference for the popular culture awards. My impression is that the criticism of popular culture is big among conservative elites, but hasn't really trickled down to the general public.
There are also large racial differences, with blacks much more likely to choose a popular culture award.
Popular Pulitzer Gold
Black 39% 27% 25%
White 11% 39% 41%
I expected that there would be some racial differences, but not such large ones.
[Data from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research]
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