NEWS2 July 2024
UK – Most of the main political topics being debated in online media are among the least important issues to UK voters, research from Unlimited has found.
The research found that many of the most talked-about issues online, including Gaza, trans rights and Net Zero, scored lowest in terms of overall conviction of the belief held, indicating they were of low importance to voters.
Reducing small boats crossings, trans rights and Gaza dominated online mentions, according to Unlimited, but were seen by voters as among the lowest priority issues for the next government.
The results are based on reaction time testing, with the study carried out between 6th and 10th June 2024, based on a nationally representative sample of 2000 respondents.
Reaction time testing asks people to answer questions and measures their agreement to the statements as well as the speed of their response, with reaction time helping to understand the emotional conviction behind their answer.
Media monitoring for keyword mentions of the issues was carried out across the period 1st January to 20th June 2024.
The most pressing issues for the public in the research were those issues that impact the individual – such as NHS waiting lists, the cost of living, crime and antisocial behaviour, GP access, national security and mental health support.
Dr Andy Myers, director of neuroscience in Unlimited’s Human Understanding Lab, said that these issues “saw some of the highest scores at the emotional level that we have ever seen”, but added that “while these that are common to us all, maybe they have become wallpaper, and hard to differentiate for the parties but they are extremely important to people nonetheless”.
The war in Gaza received the most mentions in the UK online media, Unlimited said, with more than five times more coverage than NHS waiting lists but ranked second lowest in terms of emotional conviction.
The least important issue for voters, according to Unlimited, was addressing the debate around transgender issues, despite being was the third most covered topic online.
The second most popular issue in online discourse, small boats crossings, was of middling importance to voters, Unlimited added.
The findings indicated that providing support to Ukraine ( 66%) and promoting peace in Gaza ( 65%) had near identical support in explicit figures, but in the emotional response people felt more strongly about Ukraine ( 35%) than Gaza ( 23%).
Also, 87% of people said that clean rivers should be a priority for the government, but there was low reaction time data ( 35%), which suggested it was not a top priority.
Unlimited also said that 81% of respondents agreed that reducing asylum seeker backlog should be a priority but it fell well down the list if implicit emotional conviction for these answers ( 25%) was taken into consideration.
The explicit data suggested that it was more important to voters than reducing small boat crossings, but that is reversed if you look at the subconscious figures.
Myers said: “We were astounded by the strength of conviction on display in this study. There has been plenty of conversation about apathy among voters, but the data overwhelmingly suggests how highly emotive these conversations are.
“What is really interesting is how this differs from the media conversation, it shows how what is truly important to voters is not reflected in the news, and how this gap can leave people feeling disconnected.
“It’s easy to conflate a lack of engagement in party politics with a lack of concern about the key issues, but the data proves how misguided that can be.”