Inflation was a regular topic in last year’s presidential election and research from Purdue University shows politics is also impacting consumer perception.
Each month researchers at Purdue University’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability ask consumers for their thoughts on inflation in the monthly Consumer Food Insights Survey.
Eli Bryant is a Purdue research analyst and found that a consumer’s politics can affect their economic opinions.
“When people's political party aligns with the sitting presidential administration, they tend to view the economy and view inflation a little more favorably, whereas if it doesn't, then they typically view inflation as being a little bit worse, maybe a little higher,” Bryant said.
Since January 2022, during Joe Biden’s presidency, Republican consumers tended to report higher levels of inflation than Democratic consumers, according to Purdue’s analysis. Looking forward, liberal consumers report anticipating food prices to accelerate during Donald Trump’s second presidential term.
“Inflation remains a pretty politicized issue, and our personal political ideology or party affiliation tends to influence that,” Bryant said.
And for the last six months a majority of all consumers, regardless of political stripe, have believed inflation is higher than it actually is. But Bryant says it can take consumers time to adjust to the overall increase in prices.
For most of 2024 food inflation hovered around 2.4%, down substantially from its peak of 11% in the summer of 2022.
However, food prices have increased nearly 25% since before the pandemic.
