OCCUPY WALL STREET – A Passing Fad?
ORC International’s Tracking Results Shows Growing Negative Sentiment and Loss of Interest
(Princeton, NJ, November 30, 2011) – While general awareness continues to grow toward the Occupy Wall
Street, there has been a 7 point increase in negative sentiment in social media around the movement according to
a new poll and ongoing social analysis by global market research firm, ORC International. Positive and mixed
sentiment both declined leading to believe the movement, while still widespread, is currently losing support. These
findings are further supported by a telephone poll released today by ORC International** showing over half of
Americans (57%) say they have become less interested in the movement over the past two weeks.
Our most recent social media analysis shows that while online conversations peaked to an all-time high of 5 million
posts on November 15 with protesters being evicted from Zucotti Park- the movement’s home base in New York
City- social conversation has dramatically trailed off since then. Only three in ten Americans disagree with the
eviction.
The widespread arrests continue to drive conversations (17% of all posts contained ‘arrest’, 30% ‘police’), however
it is the protesters themselves, and not the issues that are being brought to the forefront. According to the telephone
poll, there are widespread opinions about what the movement is trying to accomplish. Of those surveyed, top
responses revealed only 11% note the goal is to point out/reduce economic inequality, 5% to create more
jobs/reduce unemployment, 4% to improve economy/growth and for wealthy corporations to pay more in taxes.
According to Jeffrey Resnick, Global Managing Director of Innovation and Strategy for ORC International “the
movement seems to be slowing in the eyes of both social and mainstream media. Once evictions began across a
number of Occupy encampments, the public’s interest began to wane. While the frustrations underpinning the
movement are still real, it doesn’t have the hearts and minds of most Americans. Almost one in four Americans
(23%) say the movement should stop but a plurality simply do not care (44%).”
Jenny Verbitsky, Product Manager for ORC’s Social Analytics Solutions further commented saying “the social
space has been instrumental in showing how quickly movements can come and go in today’s society. While there
was growing positive sentiment through early November from the over 33 million individual posts, the 66 million
total posts to date contain a growing negative sentiment. It’s very telling how influential social media has been in
changing the tides.”
*Social media analysis gathered using Infegy’s Social Radar listening tool.
**Poll conducted using ORC International’s CARAVAN® service from November 25-27, 2011. The poll interviewed 1005 US
Adults by telephone.
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