Today’s Zogby blog post comes courtesy of Cheryl Korn, a Writer/Analyst with Zogby International, and an avid hockey fan since she was old enough to follow and understand the game. Thanks Cheryl!

Patrick Kane, a forward with the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL), made history by scoring the first NHL goal in Finland. This is most likely a moment Kane will carry with him for the rest of his life. But what will he remember about pleading guilty to a noncriminal charge of disorderly conduct after being accused of assaulting a cab driver over a fare dispute this past summer?

Kane could have faced up to 15 days in jail and a $250 fine, but the judge in Kane’s case issued him a conditional discharge. This meant he would avoid facing jail time as long as he does not run into problems with the law for a year. Kane was also ordered to make a statement of apology to the cab driver.

Luckily for Kane, everything seems to be neatly swept under the rug. The NHL has not chosen to punish him for his actions off the ice this past summer. However, how well does this lack of punishment sit with hockey fans and the general public?

According to a recent Zogby Interactive survey, 65% of adults nationwide agree that regardless of Kane’s guilty plea, he should face some sort of disciplinary action from the NHL. Respondents age 65 and older (70%) and parents of children under the age of 17 (69%) are among the most likely to agree. Eighteen percent of those surveyed do not agree and believe Kane should not face any disciplinary action from the NHL.

Electronic Arts Sports’ (EA Sports) NHL 10 was released on September 15. This release featured Kane’s image, and the software company has not said anything about replacing Kane’s image on the cover because of the off-ice incident this past summer. Clearly, this lack of action does not sit well with some. Our survey shows that 42% believe EA Sports should change the cover of the game and remove Kane’s image. Respondents ages 50-64 (48%) and 65 and older (47%) and parents of children under the age of 17 (44%) are among the most likely to agree that the cover should be changed. Three in ten (31%) do not agree that Kane’s image should be removed, with First Globals™ (18-29 year olds) (44%) among the most likely to say that Kane’s image should remain on the cover.

What is your opinion about this? How does this situation compare to the incident a few years ago where former Vancouver Canuck Todd Bertuzzi issued former Colorado Av Steve Moore a check into the boards? The play would end Moore’s hockey playing career. As you may recall, the referee during the game did not call a penalty as the check was deemed legal. However, Bertuzzi was later suspended by the NHL due to the severity of Moore’s injuries. Clearly, Kane could have seriously injured the cab driver during the incident, so why is the NHL continuing to look the other way? Did the NHL “miss the call” by not issuing Kane a suspension or some type of disciplinary action for his conduct off the ice this past summer?

ZogbyFeaturedContributor culture, lifestyles crime, entertainment, first globals, history, international, lifestyle, sports, summer, war, zogby

The New York Times recently published a story about Goldman Sachs’ PR problem surrounding employees’ huge salaries. The economy is in a bad shape, and this is at least partly due to Wall Street; ordinary people are struggling while the average Goldman Sachs employee is getting a $700,000 paycheck.  The company would like to change its perception, preferably without making salaries much lower.

Though Wall Street has been in the news recently, what many think are excessive CEO salaries have been a target of negative popular sentiment for a much longer time. Some have argued that the public gives a much easier pass to entertainers and sportsmen making similar types of salaries.

Do Wall Street and CEO salaries make you angry? Do you think your anger is justified? Would you support rules regulating or capping compensation in private companies?

Zeljka consumption, politics economy, sports

We ask some pretty interesting questions here at Zogby International. And, I must say, we get some pretty interesting answers. You, our faithful panelists and readers, also ask us some pretty interesting questions in return. However there’s one question that comes up a lot. It’s something that many of you want to know. And it goes something like this:

“Hey, you people at Zogby, I enjoy your surveys but –What’s up with those wacky demographics?”

If you’ve taken more than one or two of our surveys, you know exactly what I’m talking about, right? Are you a WalMart shopper? If so, how often do you shop there? Are you a NASCAR fan? Do you consider yourself a citizen of your city or town, the U.S. or the planet earth? And on one memorable survey, we even asked if you were a tree what kind of a tree would you be? We ask standard demographics of course, questions you’d see on any other survey, age, race, income, education, etc. but those are what you’d expect, and here at Zogby we’re proud of being ahead of the curve and, to mix my metaphors, sometimes that means thinking outside the box.

Essentially we’re trend spotters, I can’t count the number of meetings here at Zogby where we discuss trends in one form or another, and in fact it would probably be safe to say we talk about trends at nearly every meeting. We’re looking for what’s happening, and, just as importantly, we’re looking for who’s making it happen. As with any of the more standard demographic questions, we are, to put it simply, grouping people based on commonalities and differences. When we have groups of people, versus just an individual, we can say something about what the group as a whole thinks.  We can determine how America views the President or if a majority of beer drinkers prefer Guinness to Coors.  It’s the same with the wacky questions.

Take yourself as an example. You’re not just your age, or your race, or your education, you’re so much more than that. Your opinions and feelings have been shaped by your family, by where and how you grew up. You’re as much a product of your generation, the Woodstockers, or the Nikes, as you are of your geographic location, as much a product of your birth order, as you are of your gender, all of these and more come together and create the glasses through which you see the world.

WalMart shoppers and NASCAR fans have proven to primarily vote more conservatively, so when we see this strong cohort move, we know that we are seeing a shift that maybe we wouldn’t have otherwise spotted.

And what about that planet citizenship question? Well, much of Mr. Zogby’s recent work has to do with America’s First Globals™, who often agree that they see themselves as citizens of planet earth. These are the people who are likely to have passports, and who are just as likely to tell you that their best friend lives in Belarus, as in Frackville. This question was one of the predictive identifiers for this generation, and as they are the ones we will one day turn this nation over to, we here at Zogby agree that knowing what they think, and how, will help us follow them into the future.

Do you have an idea for an emerging trend?  Leave a comment and let us know or submit a question in the ‘contact us’ box on the right hand side of the blog!

Written by Karen Scott, Managing Editor, Senior Analyst at Zogby International. In this role, she oversees the team that creates Zogby International’s surveys, scientific reports of survey results, and research papers.  Karen has half a decade of experience with Zogby and has played an integral role working with hundreds of clients ranging from political activists to consumer trends.

Leann Uncategorized education, faith, first globals, future, international, race, sports, work, zogby

Thanks again to all those who continue to vote on our Top Question Tuesday poll. Last week’s winning question asked about whether the United States needs more than two political parties. We’ll ask that question on an upcoming interactive survey and blog about the results soon.

This week’s user-submitted survey questions are below. The questions are shortened to save space on our blog post, but these are the basic ideas. Take a look though and then vote for which question you’d most like to see on the next Zogby Interactive survey. As a reminder, if you’d like to submit a question to be considered for a Zogby survey, use the “contact us” box on the right of the page. And if you’d like to join Zogby’s interactive panel to answer questions similar to these, click here.

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1.Are you very concerned, somewhat concerned, or not at all concerned about the cost of a college education in the United States today?

2. Do you believe that steroid use by professional athletes represents a serious threat to the integrity of professional sports?

3. How high do you expect the price of gas per gallon to rise this summer – lower than $2.50, $2.50, $3.00, $3.50, or higher than $3.50?

Katy Uncategorized education, sports, summer, Top Question Tuesday, zogby

Thanks to everyone who continues to vote on our Top Question Tuesday. Last week’s winning question asked about whether people change their political ideologies. We’ll put this question on a future Zogby Interactive survey and blog about the results soon!

This week’s user-submitted survey questions are below. The questions are shortened to save space on our blog post, but these are the basic ideas. Take a look though and then vote for which question you’d most like to see on the next Zogby Interactive survey. As a reminder, if you’d like to submit a question to be considered for a Zogby survey, use the “contact us” box on the right of the page. And if you’d like to join Zogby’s interactive panel to answer questions similar to these, click here.

1) On tax day, April 15th, over 750 “tea parties” were held throughout the US. Most at the tea parties were protesting what they viewed as high levels of government spending and taxation. Do you think these protests are likely or unlikely to lead to any changes in government levels of spending and taxation?

2) Both the New York Yankees and the New York Mets have recently opened new baseball stadiums. An article in USA Today noted that New York’s Independent Budget Office estimated that the cost to the city from the Yankees stadium is $362 million, while the cost from the Mets stadium is $138 million. Do you agree or disagree that taxpayer money should be used to fund sports stadiums?

3) Do you prefer interacting with people whose opinions are very different from your own, or with people whose opinions are mostly similar to your own?

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Katy methodology future, sports, Top Question Tuesday, zogby

Thanks to everyone who continues to vote on our Top Question Tuesday. Last week’s winning question asked about merit pay for teachers.  We’ll put this question on a future Zogby Interactive survey and blog about the results soon!

This week’s user-submitted survey questions are below. The questions are shortened to save space on our blog post, but these are the basic ideas. Take a look though and then vote for which question you’d most like to see on the next Zogby Interactive survey. As a reminder, if you’d like to submit a question to be considered for a Zogby survey , use the “contact us” box on the right of the page. And if you’d like to join Zogby’s interactive panel to answer questions similar to these, click here.

1. Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree that steriods represent a major threat to the integrity of professional sports in the U.S. today?

2. Which of the following best describes how you generally handle your credit card balance at the end of the month – do you pay off the entire balance, make a partial payment, make a minimum payment, or do you not use credit cards?

3. Do you believe that President Obama’s trip is likely to improve, worsen, or have no effect on the way America is viewed in Europe?

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Katy Uncategorized future, Obama, sports, Top Question Tuesday, zogby

Today is the day that millions of people are turning in their NCAA Basketball Tournament brackets. It seems like everybody is doing it, even President Barack Obama.  Obama posted his through ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, and even went on the network to explain his picks.

 The winner of the ESPN Contest gets $10,000. That’s big money compared to the typical office pool, but taken together, the FBI estimates that more than $2.5 billion  is illegally wagered annually on March Madness. 

According to the New York Times, in Las Vegas, casinos  expect nearly $100 million to be wagered on the tournament.  This year’s total take does seem to be down, reports the Chicago Tribune .  “Jay Kornegay, executive director of the Las Vegas Hilton race and sports book, said he expects overall betting on March Madness to drop by about 6 percent this year.”  The NY Times article also says that: “Online gambling for March Madness, largely through Web sites beyond the borders of the United States, already exceeds the take in Las Vegas.”

The really big bucks are to won by picking the winner of every game,  including one that  offers $12 million to whomever does that.

All of this untaxed spending is just another reason why some people want to make sports betting legal.  Among them is New Jersey State Sen. Raymond Lesniak, who plans to file a lawsuit in federal district court within the next two weeks to sue the federal government in a bid to overturn a 17-year-old ban on sports betting (four states are exempt, but only Nevada has it).  “Billions of dollars are being bet offshore through the Internet or through organized crime, and those are revenues that could be going to New Jersey,” Lesniak said.

 Should sports gambling be legal so that states can benefit from it, or would that spoil the fun and encourage unethical activity in college and pro sports?

Paul Uncategorized crime, internet, media, Obama, race, sports, technology, video, work

Say it ain’t so, A-Rod. Or, as Yogi Berra once said, “This is like déjà vu all over again.” New York Yankee Alex Rodriquez, considered by some the best all-around talent in baseball, is the latest of the game’s stars to be charged with (and admitting) the use of steroids.

How badly are the reputations of the identified players damaged by their use of performance enhancing drugs?  Zogby International did a poll in April 2007 to gauge how people felt about Barry Bonds breaking Henry Aaron’s career home run record. Only 8% of those surveyed hoped Bonds would break the record. Thirty-two percent said the Bonds/steroids issue showed baseball had lost its purity, while 36% said Bonds’ records should not be recognized.

Last week, Associated Press-GfK released a poll of baseball fans.  More than half say Rodriguez shouldn’t make the Hall of Fame after admitting that he used steroids. In an AP-AOL Sports poll in April 2006 cited in the article, 61% of fans said the same about Bonds.

As for steroids and the game’s records, 62% now take the game’s records less seriously for that reason. Perhaps the most important of the AP-GfK poll’s findings was that 55% of fans now say they care “a lot” about whether players use steroids – down from a high of 71% in a June 2008 AP-Ipsos poll.

Read more…

Paul culture, recreation drugs, history, international, sports, zogby

While it is possible some young people in countries like China and Russia may revert back to some protectionist policies and many could latch on to ultra-nationalist attitudes — especially in the face of recent U.S. policies — it doesn’t seem likely in the case of America’s First Global Citizens (i.e. those born in the U.S. between 1979 and 1990) will be bitten by that bug. Despite the culture wars over evolution and creation, a “my country, right or wrong” tradition of American Exceptionalism, and a dismal short-term financial future,  more and more of them are becoming estranged from these traditional mindsets.

But what makes Zogby International so sure that this age group in America won’t experience a backlash of nationalist attitudes, as seen among youth in burgeoning super-powers like China and Russia, anxious to flex their own education and consumer power?  It is clear from our data that First Globals are more exposed to a range of ideas, cultures, and enabling technologies pushing them to a more planetary worldview and a greater appreciation of diversity.

This phenomenon of Global Citizenship is not only being experienced in the U.S. Tomas Etzler, a Czech journalist reporting in China, states that the youth in China have an interest in material goods from the West, a factor that can indeed create a counterforce against their desire to see China as the dominant world power. And in various capitals throughout Europe, you can meet Russian students who strive to speak with an English accent.

Read more…

Jeremy Uncategorized culture, education, evolution, first globals, future, Generations, international, marriage, music, Obama, sports, war, work, zogby