Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, New Utah Olympics Logo, And Other Cultural Tidbits
How do Utah Latter-day Saints feel about various cultural events?
Introduction
This weekly post will be a lighter cultural follow-up to the more dense political data I shared last week (read below).
As you can see from our first chart, the headline takeaway is that Utah LDS really do not like the HULU Secret Lives of Mormon Wives show (though notably only 12% have watched the show compared to 21% of Non LDS Utah.) But, look at those numbers, net -71 rating among Latter-day Saints compared to the net -24 rating among non LDS which is a massive difference. Not only that, 64% of Latter-day Saints report a “very unfavorable” opinion of it compared to 26% of Non LDS. There is clearly a very strong distaste of this show (or the perception of this show as many have not watched it) among Latter-day Saints and a much stronger negative reaction compared to the broader Utah population.
Despite losing some basketball stars in the past several years, the Utah Jazz brand has strong positive brand approval (+22). To my surprise, Utah Latter-day Saints were significantly more likely to follow the Jazz than Non LDS Utah. And, not only that, the net favorability score among Utah LDS was almost double that of Non LDS Utah (+29LDS vs. +16 NonLDS)! Why do Utah Latter-day Saints love the Utah Jazz so much?
While the previous charts show some divisions of opinion, this next cultural question everyone seems to agree on: everyone equally dislikes the new Utah Olympics logo which is underwater by 23 points.
Nearly 1/3 of the Utah population “strongly dislikes” it and this number is similar for Utah LDS and Utah Non-LDS.
Conclusion
As I suggested in my previous post, Utah still seems like a tale to two groups: the culture and the counter culture. From the charts this week, the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives most clearly depicts this, but I’ll also share one additional chart.
A near majority of LDS Utahns thinks Utah is headed in the right direction (49% right vs. 27% wrong), and a majority of Non LDS Utahns thinks Utah is headed in the wrong direction(30% right vs. 51% wrong). As LDS birthrates continue to decline and more outsiders move into Utah making the LDS population a minority instead of a majority, I eventually expect to see a reversal between these two demographic groups where growing numbers of LDS Utah will say “wrong direction” and vice versa for Non LDS Utah. Though, this clearly hasn’t happened yet (at least in people’s minds). This, to me, is a signal that Latter-day Saints still feel like the dominant influence in Utah culture and politics at this point in time and Non Utah LDS still feel like the underdogs.
What do you think about my analysis? Do you agree or disagree with anything I said here? Leave your thoughts and see you next week!
I do find it very curious to see how Latter-day Saints becoming a more minority demographic in Utah will impact the church. I think there are opportunities for positive things big and small, such as members and missionaries from Utah being seen less as "out of touch" with what it's like to be LDS everywhere else we are a small or even insignificant percentage of the population, and it can help church leaders raised in Utah be more familiar with, and have more connections with, global membership. It can also make it so there's less of a need for a "Utah solution" and an "everywhere else solution" to church administration, culture, etc. which sounds great for a global church very big on correlation.