How We’ve Changed:
Social Trends from Post-War to Present Day and Beyond
Each box below contains a short summary of a chapter in the AMSR publication: “How We’ve Changed: Social Trends from Post-War to Present Day and Beyond”, along with a link to the full chapter in the Archive itself. Click a box to open and close each one.
Food: from Sunday roast to poke bowl
This article explores the changes that have taken pace in food consumption behaviour in this country in the past few decades, partly due to the demands of social media. A 1986 study from Gallup confirms the dominance of the Great British Meal but also picks up significant differences from 40 years earlier. Reasons for changes are discussed, including the changing role of women and the growth of convenience foods.
The many social factors that affect our food culture – the role of food in illustrating our values and history – are examined. What we eat is influenced by a wide range of social, political, economic and technical factors, including market research.
Still a nation of shopkeepers
This paper describes the innovations which have led to changes in the retail environment. No longer do housewives queue behind multiple counters and visit small specialist shops. Grocery products are now available in almost every format imaginable. Stores are now brands. Ehrenberg & Keng’s ’1984 paper’ Patterns of Store Choice is referenced to illustrate the extent to which shopper behaviour impacts on brands within stores. The effect of loyalty cards is discussed. The growth of supermarkets and the evolution of micro-marketing information systems, to help summarise key characteristics of local areas which retailers can consider in siting stores, are examined. Key variables such as variety, convenience, proximity and time constraints can be used to evaluate various retail formats.
The emergence of online shopping is discussed. The Archive shows the value of access to consumer-based research as a precursor to commercial action.
Women at home: what did the kitchen ever do for us?
This article explores the ways women are caught between the hegemonies and tensions of domestic life, in the context of the timeline of the modern kitchen. It looks at the emergence of new kitchen technologies and modes of consumption in the 1950s. Greater wealth, social mobility and a remodelling of home life, impacted on the design and consumption of aspirational goods. Living space was reconfigured: the kitchen became a social hub, rather than just a woman’s workplace.
The role of labour-saving devices, and modern kitchen tools are discussed. Women were still undertaking the majority of kitchen chores. Kitchen appliances were increasingly purchased not just as labour saving devices but as a reflection of taste, class and cultural capital.
The Archive contains a 1975 CRAM survey on blenders, tracing changing social and cultural changes around kitchen appliances, food preparation and consumption. It is noted that when modern appliances to ease domestic life were becoming entrenched as necessities, rather than luxuries, convenience foods were becoming more prevalent. The emotional connections attached to feeding the family and attitudes to taste, class, gender politics and consumer desires are discussed in the context of ever evolving socio-cultural dynamics and women’s role in the kitchen.
Women at work: plus ça change
This article traces the role of women in the workplace, discussing the position in the ‘80s and ‘90s when the public were still wrestling with the idea that women might be in the work-place at all, to the current position, where the pay gap is still an issue and women remain under-represented in the board room. A 1996 study found that 69%of European women said they would prefer to be working and 43% of non-working women planned to work at some time in the future. 59% of working women provided half or more of the family’s income.
Despite being the new earners, 94% of women said that family was the most important part of their lives, taking precedence over work. An analysis from ONS in 2016 indicates that women carried out 60% of childcare, cooking and housework.
The problem of sexual harassment at work is discussed.
The article suggests that when women feel discouraged about where they are in the work-place it can be comforting to look at how far they have come.
Holidays: a shrinking world
This article explores the range of factors that changed people’s holiday habits: increased workplace holiday allowances, spending power, the ease and affordability of foreign travel and interest in other cultures contributed to growth in the sector. Holidays abroad became the norm, but the market for holidays and short breaks within Britain also increased. The Covid pandemic hit the sector hard.
The role of online services, agents and travel operators and the vast amount of data which travel organisations can apply across their businesses processes are discussed.
The article presents travel trends in GB and abroad, and looks behind the trends, examining the variables affecting the travel market eg its seasonal nature and the growth of long-haul travel, as well as external factors such as political events, conflicts and recessions.
Research approaches eg customer satisfaction surveys and trade-off models are discussed. The article ends with a look at the future of travel.
The arts
This article explores the conflicting needs of creativity, consumer preferences and market forces – researching the arts can be more complex than identifying target audiences and increasing the number of buyers for the product.
Does it matter if the arts are elitist? Do they have to be marketed to a mass market? Can they not be a niche market?
However, many arts organisations are publicly funded or assisted or businesses, and the sizes of audiences do matter.
The importance of extending the appreciation of the arts to wider audiences and making their appeal as democratic as possible is discussed.
Research methodologies used in advertising, product development and consumer behaviour can be applied to culture and the arts and relevant case histories are cited.
The role of sponsorship, where the application of research has been very valuable, is discussed. A programme of research into audience development and the effectiveness of sponsorship for the South Bank Centre and research for the Leonardo Exhibition sponsored by IBM are described. Research in this sector is not just for numerical profiling but understanding visitors and their experience.
The effect of the pandemic and the lockdown period it entailed are discussed.
Smoking: a blueprint for change
This article explores changing attitudes to smoking. The links between smoking and lung cancer were made as early as the 1940s, but the tobacco industry disputed the evidence. As late as the 1960s only a third of all US doctors believed that the case against cigarettes had been established,
Data from TGI shows that in 1969 49% of people in the UK were smokers; by 2018 this had fallen to 14% The rate of decline increased in the last decade parallel with the launch and growth of e-cigarettes.
The relationship of smoking and people’s attitudes to health is discussed and their motivations for smoking looked at in detail.
The role of market research and advertising in the promotion of smoking is acknowledged. The changing relationship between role models and smoking is discussed. Smoking has changed from being social to anti-social and has become a minority activity. Restrictions to smoking in public places have increased and the ban is considered to have had a positive impact on public health and helped to create a shift in culture.
Health and wellbeing: bringing mind and body together
Perceptions of health and beauty are inextricably linked with fads and fashions. The links between food and health go back a long way. The article discusses the obesity crisis and focuses on the language used to examine these issues and the word wellbeing itself, as well as the mixed messages that surround healthy eating.
Looking at mental health, changes in public attitudes are noted as people start to speak out more about these issues. There is certainly less stigma and a greater understanding of the importance of mental health to our wellbeing.
Diversity: the struggle continues
The author argues that discrimination and prejudice – about racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, ageism, and classism continue to exist and will evolve.
Searching the Archive relating to diversity issues confirms that progress is in no way linear. On mental health, for instance, attitudes and beliefs ranged from compassionate understanding to ignorance and stereotyping. Attitudes to immigrants, homosexuality, slavery. disablement and racism are explored.
The Archive helps us to recognise how far we have come in an historical context. Issues of diversity ate complex and deeply rooted. Pre-conditioned narratives have embedded these biases into societal constructs. What is considered acceptable at one time, can be offensive at a later date. ‘Mother-in-law’ jokes are discussed and a plea made for misogyny and prejudice to be laid to rest.
Views from WIRe (Women in Research), CORe (Colour of Research). MRS Unlimited (Disability) and MRSpride conclude the article.
Generational cohorts: what can we learn from each other?
Generational cohorts are widely used as a method of segmenting data and understanding more about populations. ’Baby Boomers’ and ‘Millennials’ are two examples of such segments, which also include ‘The Lost Generation’, ‘The Greatest Generation’ and the ‘Silent Generation’.
The article discusses different generational cohorts in terms of the technology that existed when they were born and the challenges’ they faced coming to terms with developments during their lives. It also looks at what generational cohorts have achieved and societal advances they have made. The potential tensions between generations are explored.
The limitations of cohort segmentation, including the application of regional insights and the dangers of being one-dimensional, are discussed.
An article on ‘Bias-based segmentation: an alternative to generational segmentation’ follows. Behavioural economics, using behavioural or psychographic measures. is proposed. An infographic diagram, the Cognitive Bias Codex., illustrates cognitive biases which have been studied and recorded. A bias-based segmentation involves segmenting people by the biases to which they are most susceptible.
Green issues: the world is hotting up
This article highlights climate change and argues for the world to act with urgency. It summarises public opinion on the issue, with increasing numbers of people seeing the environment as a matter of concern. However, it took till 2019 for it to rise to 25% saying it was the most important issue. Differences in demographic attitudes, particularly in respect of age, are discussed. While the public have had underlying concerns about climate change for a long time, there was little education or depth of knowledge, A TGI study from 2012 showed only 33.9% of people being prepared to make lifestyle compromises to benefit the environment,
The lack of information about green issues was compounded by distrust in the sources of information that did get published. A chart illustrates changing priories among MPs in 1991 and 2000.
Reasons for pushing the conversation up the agenda in recent years are explored, including the influence of millennials and an increasing concern in companies about social responsibility. The article concludes that the conversation about climate change will dominate society for years to come.
A view from the MRS Sustainability Council follows the article.
Happiness: can money buy it?
This article explores the increase of happiness studies as an important focus of policy and public discourse across the globe in the past 40 years. Happiness and the quality of life are seen as indices of societal success rather than just economic performance. Increased wealth has not led to increased happiness in developed countries. The emergence of happiness as a measurable entity in social research is evidenced by data from the Social Indicators Network (SINET). The effects on happiness of positive relationships, having a job and good health are explored.
The role of money and material security are seen as less important. According to the UN’s World Happiness Survey, countries such as in Scandinavia, with progressive politics and high social security are always ranked in the top ten happiest countries. The positive and negative effects of lockdown are discussed. The article suggests that people’s happiness depends on intrinsic personal, not solely extrinsic societal, goals.
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