Image of the USA has improved since presidential elections
Nuremberg, June 19, 2009 – The election of Barack Obama as US President has improved the political image of the USA abroad. This is one finding of a survey on the subject of "attitudes towards the USA”, which GfK Custom Research has carried out on behalf of the Wall Street Journal Europe. The survey focuses on the political and cultural influence of the USA from the perspective of the citizens of 19 countries.
Of just under 20,000 survey participants, more than half are optimistic as to how the political influence of America will change in future, following Obama’s election. Western Europeans displayed an above-average level of positivity, with three quarters expecting an improvement to take place. In Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, around eight in ten people anticipate that the political image of the USA abroad will become more positive. This means that more people in Western Europe believe a change of trend is possible than in the USA itself, where around 61% stated that their country will be seen in a new political light as a result of Obama’s election.
Political image: presidential election brings change
A clear change of image is emerging. Looking back over the past five years, two out of three respondents perceive the political influence of the USA on the world to have been negative. There are a particularly high number of critical voices in Greece, with approximately 88% judging US policy to have had a negative effect. The value is similarly high in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium. In Germany, three quarters of people feel that American political influence over the past five years has been negative. In the USA itself, 69% share this critical outlook.
Cultural image: films, sport and music are most popular exports
When asking respondents about America’s best cultural export, films and TV series come top of the list, with 30%. Europeans, in particular, are enthusiastic about American film productions, with the Greeks most keen (52%), followed by the Hungarians (51%) and the Dutch (50%). Only approximately one in five of those surveyed expressed criticism. Among them, respondents aged over 50 tend to take a negative view of Hollywood productions.
Sport comes in second place on the scale of popularity, with a total of 12% of all those surveyed considering baseball, American football and other types of sport to be the USA’s best export. Sport is particularly favored in France (18%) and the Czech Republic (17%). Music comes third in the rankings, with 11%, and receives an above-average level of appreciation in Switzerland, Sweden and Belgium. Fashion, literature and food are ranked fourth, each with 4%.
The least appreciated cultural export of the USA is its food culture, according to the responses of one third of those surveyed. This value increases with the level of familiarity with the USA: 44% of people who had traveled to the USA expressed a negative view. In Western Europe, the percentage of those taking a critical view stands at 45%, while in France it is 65%.
Praise from the UK, neutrality in Germany
Overall, just under a quarter of those surveyed in all countries regard the USA’s cultural image as positive. Opinions are most favorable in the UK, where a total of 38% assessed American cultural influences as completely positive, and around 31% expressed a critical opinion. This means that the UK is the only country in which more people are in favor of American cultural influences than against them. In total, around 39% of respondents believe that American culture has a negative effect abroad.
Citizens of Greece, Russia and Hungary have the lowest opinion of the USA’s cultural impact, with more than half of Greek people, just under half of Russians and 40% of Hungarians feeling that the USA has a negative effect in terms of culture. However, particularly in Russia, it is evident that opinions vary according to whether the respondent has been to the USA. Of those that had, just under half gave a positive response. Within the group of those who had never visited the USA, the percentage of those with a favorable opinion was just 10%.
German people often take a neutral stance towards American culture. A total of 46% of people perceive US cultural influences as neither positive nor negative, while a further 16% view America’s cultural impact as good.
American people themselves also take a critical view. Almost half of those surveyed have a low opinion of the cultural image of their country abroad.
The survey
For the international GfK survey "attitudes towards the USA”, participants were asked what general cultural influence the USA has on the world, what good and bad cultural influences come from the USA, how they assess the country’s political impact abroad over the past five years, whether they think President Barack Obama will change America’s political influence on the world, and whether they have ever traveled to the country. For the current survey, which GfK Custom Research carried out on behalf of the Wall Street Journal Europe with financial support from GfK-Nürnberg e.V. (the GfK Association), a total of 19,295 people in 19 countries were surveyed in spring 2009.
Further information: Mark Hofmans, GfK Custom Research DTC, Tel.
+32 2 47528-00, Fax +32 2 47528-02, mark.hofmans@gfk.com
Wall Street Journal Europe
The Wall Street Journal Europe was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Brussels. It belongs to the global financial news group which also includes the Wall Street Journal, the Wall Street Journal Asia and Wall Street Journal Online, the largest global news website available on subscription. These publications have a combined paid circulation of 2.6 million.
Further information: Huss-PR-Consult, Judith Huss,
Tel. +49 89 6494-5570, judith.huss@hussprconsult.de
The GfK Group
The GfK Group is the No. 4 market research organization worldwide. Its activities cover the three business sectors of Custom Research, Retail and Technology and Media. The Group has 150 operating companies covering over 100 countries. Of a total of 10.267 employees (as at March 31, 2008), more than 80% are based outside Germany. For further information, visit our website: www.gfk.com