Flemington, NJ, May 1, 2009 – A national media study among 300 self-reported Democrats, Republicans and Independents revealed that the majority of all political parties indicated that support would be unlikely if Miss California, Carrie Prejean, ran for a political office.

The study was conducted by HCD Research, using its MediaCurves® website on April 30, to obtain Americans’ perceptions regarding Miss California, Carrie Prejean, and her advocacy for the conservative group, N.O.M (National Organization for Marriage) and her controversial statements regarding same sex marriage. 

“When viewing the automated response curves, we saw that when the Miss California  USA Pageant statement was read, the Republicans’ and Independents’ agreement levels were low and fairly consistent with each other whereas Democrats’ agreement levels were high,” remarked Glenn Kessler, President and CEO, HCD Research. “However all political parties were in agreement when Miss California stated that she was speaking from the heart,” added Kessler. 

The study also revealed that a majority of Republicans (69%) and Independents (56%) reported that the statement released by the Miss California USA Pageant was “not” a fair one. A majority of Democrats (55%) indicated that the statement was a fair one. 

Among the findings: 

Please indicate how likely you would be to support Miss California, Carrie Prejean, if she were to run for a political position in the future. Please rank your likelihood on a scale from 1-7, where 1 represents “Not at all likely” and 7 represents “Extremely likely” 

“Do you think the statement released by Miss California USA® in regard to the situation with the current Miss California, Carrie Prejean, was a fair one?” 

While viewing the video clip, participants indicated their levels of agreement by moving their mouse from left to right on a continuum. The responses were recorded in quarter-second intervals and reported in the form of curves. The participants were also asked to respond to post-viewing questions.

The MediaCurves website provides the media and general public with a venue to view Americans’ perceptions of popular and controversial media events and advertisements.

Editors/Reporters: For more information on the study, or to speak with Glenn Kessler, president and CEO, HCD Research, please contact Vince McGourty, HCD Research, at (908) 483-9121 or (vince.mcgourty@hcdi.net).