Focus grouping Romney and JFK 'faith' speeches

by Frank James

HCD Research used its MediaCurves.com technology to get a sense of how a modern-day audience reacted to Mitt Romney's "faith" speech and the original such speech, given by John F. Kennedy in 1960.

They tested segments of both speeches for a members of an Internet audience who were able to register using their computer mice how sincere or insincere they found either politician to be.

Here's the researchers' press release:

Flemington, NJ, December 6, 2007 – A new national study released today compared the levels of sincerity that Americans reported as they viewed John F. Kennedy’s famous 1960 speech on religion and a similar speech given by Mitt Romney earlier today in Texas.

The study was conducted among 750 Americans during December 5-6. During the split-sample study, 250 participants viewed segments from the Kennedy speech and 500 viewed segments from the Romney speech.

The communications research study was conducted by HCD Research, the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion (MCIPO) and the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Social and Religious Research at The Jewish Theological Seminary.

While viewing video segments of the speeches, participants indicated the levels of sincerity of John Kennedy and Mitt Romney 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. Participants were also asked pre- and post-viewing questions.

The responses of all voters regardless of party affiliation seem to track fairly tightly during
the Romney segments tested.

That differs noticeably from the response to JFK's speech which indicates that Democrats viewed him as significantly more sincere than other voters.

The reaction by the group of viewers identified by religious affiliation became interesting when Romney began criticizing secularists who want to separate church and state in the public sphere.

Protestants gave him higher marks for sincerity here than Jews, Catholics and those in the "other" category did.

In the portion of the Kennedy speech that tested, all the religious groups tracked with another though the "other" category spiked downward when Kennedy said he believed in an America where no Catholic prelates sent orders to Catholic politicians nor where politicians sought instructions from clergy. It's hard to tell what that viewer reaction meant.