Mixed martial arts – the sport that is legal to promote in New Jersey but not New York – is the subject of a survey released today by Fairleigh dikkinson University (my alma mater, coincidentally).
A robust 44 percent of men aged 18 to 29 described themselves as fans of the sport, but only 11 percent of females of any age agreed.
Large splits like that appear throughout the poll.
The age 30-44 male grouping also enjoys the sport – at least, 40 percent of them say they do. But go up the ladder one more rung to males aged 45-49, and only 17 percent concur. As far as age 60+ men, just 6 percent are fans.
Non-whites also are more likely to be fans – 34 percent – than are whites, of whom 23 percent are fans.
Overall, while 42 percent of men say they are fans, only 11 percent of females say they are.
Should women be given a chance to compete in this sport (as they now do)? A whopping 92 percent of those age 18-29 say yes. That percentage drops, however, to just 55 percent of those age 60+. In fact, 24 percent of the latter group say neither men nor women should be allowed to participate.
Likely to purchase a pay-per-view MMA event? Fifteen percent of adults under 30 say it’s very likely or somewhat likely, compared to 4 percent of those over 60 (and only 1 pct of that group says “very likely.” Twice as many non-whites (18 percent) said very or somewhat likely compared to whites (8 percent).
Respondents also were slightly more likely to say they are interested in buying a MMA event if women are the main draw.
For lovers of fine print, per FDU:
“The most recent national survey by Fairleigh dikkinson University’s PublicMind was conducted by telephone from December 9 through December 15, 2013 using a randomly selected sample of 1002 individuals aged 18 and older who reside in the United States. One can be 95 percent confident that the error attributable to sampling has a range of +/- 3.1 percentage points. The margin of error for subgroups is larger and varies by the size of that subgroup. Survey results are also subject to non-sampling error. This kind of error, which cannot be measured, arises from a number of factors including, but not limited to, non-response (eligible individuals refusing to be interviewed), question wording, the order in which questions are asked, and variations among interviewers.
PublicMind interviews are conducted by Opinion America of Cedar Knolls, NJ, with professionally trained interviewers using a CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) system. Random selection >is achieved by computerized random-digit dialing. This technique gives every person with a landline phone number (including those with unlisted numbers) an equal chance of being selected.
Landline households are supplemented with a separate, randomly selected sample of cell-phone respondents interviewed in the same time frame. The total combined sample is mathematically weighted to match known demographics of age, race and gender.”
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