Flemington, NJ, January 28, 2009 – A study conducted among 312 self-reported Democrats, Republicans and Independents revealed that after watching an educational advocacy video, support for allocating a tax increase toward education doubled, from 10% to 20% among all parties.

The study was conducted by HCD Research during January 25-27 to obtain Americans’ perceptions of an educational advocacy video that was sponsored by The Forum for Education & Democracy, a national education "action tank.” Respondents were also asked questions regarding other national issues, including the economy, health care energy and the environment.

Participants’ emotions were also measured using the Ayer Emotion battery, which allows viewers to select from a list of nine positive and nine negative emotions to indicate the emotions they felt while watching the video.

Support for allocating additional funds toward education was significantly higher among Democrats, compared to Republicans and Independents after watching the video. In addition, a significantly higher percentage of Republicans would allocate the entire hypothetical 5% tax increase toward the federal deficit than any other segment both before and after watching the video.

While the video appeared to be effective in shifting support toward educational funding, it had little impact on opinions regarding whether the tax increase should be allocated solely to one issue or evenly across all national issues.  Before and after viewing the video, a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats (67% vs. 50%; 64% vs. 48%) indicated that the money should be allocated to one issue.

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 post-viewing questions.

The Media Curves web site 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).