[Youth Seen Through Big Data] Conservative Shift? That Thought Is Conservative... Depoliticization

Conservatives Seen as Totalitarianism, Progressives as Individualism
'Malicious Comments' for Democratic Party, 'No Comments' for People Power Party

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] The current generation in their 20s is often described as "having a stronger tendency to vote for conservative parties than before and being enthusiastic about virtual currency investment." Korean society is engaged in heated debates over how to interpret and understand them. Big data analysis sends a message that they should not be judged by existing frameworks. From a political inclination perspective, the view of "depoliticization" rather than "conservatism" seems more appropriate.

To mark its 33rd anniversary, Asia Economy commissioned the "New Communication Research Institute" to conduct a survey targeting people in their 20s and analyzed about one million sentences from the university students' community board "Everytime." The survey was conducted online with 400 respondents divided by class, gender, and ideology through Open Survey, a data collection and analysis company, extracting highly related words.

In the survey, conservative words related to ideology appeared in the order of "Bukhan (North Korea)," "Park Geun-hye," "Lee Myung-bak," "regionalism," and "hakbeoljuui (academic elitism)." On the other hand, progressive words were found in the order of "Netflix," "used goods trading," "drinking alone," "early adopter," and "remote work."

The fact that "Bukhan" is recognized as a representative conservative word suggests that it is understood as synonymous or similar to totalitarianism. The former presidents are likely associated with conservative parties, and the selection of words considered typical social evils confirms a strong negative perception.

While the words recognized as conservative are relatively easy to understand, the words identified as progressive are unfamiliar. They are far from political terms and mostly relate to individualism in daily life.

The institute analyzed, "The difference between 'conservative' and 'progressive' in the responses of people in their 20s can be interpreted as a contrast between totalitarianism and individualism."

From the perspective of economic class awareness, words such as "real estate," "hakbeoljuui (academic elitism)," "capitalism," "Lee Myung-bak," and "Park Geun-hye" were extracted as associated with the upper class. These are similar to the words recognized as conservative.

Then how should we view the People Power Party's landslide victory in the April 7 by-elections? According to the analysis of the "Everytime" board, similar words to "politician" included "haenggak (acts)," "power," "oppression," and "molestation." This reflects the distrust or low efficacy that people in their 20s feel toward politics.

Regarding the Democratic Party, along with words like "democracy" and "influence," gender-related words such as "pro-feminist tendency" and "gender equality" appeared, as well as negative words like "haenggak (acts)." In contrast, meaningful similar words related to the People Power Party were hard to find. Simply put, the Democratic Party receives "malicious comments," while the People Power Party receives "no comments."

Looking at the exit poll results from the recent by-elections, 55.6% of people in their 20s voted for Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, while Democratic Party candidate Park Young-sun received 33.6%. Applying the big data survey results supports the analysis that "disappointment or antipathy toward the Democratic Party increased the People Power Party's vote share." Fundamentally, expectations for politics are low, and disappointment is mainly expressed toward the ruling party.

When isolating women in their 20s, they showed somewhat more support for the Democratic Party, which is interpreted as partially reflecting gender conflicts. In fact, words similar to "reverse discrimination" were actively extracted, such as "conscription," "oppression," "feminism," "appearance obsession," "eyesore," and "justification." When linked with the Democratic Party's similar word "pro-feminist tendency," it suggests that men in their 20s hold negative views of the Democratic Party regarding gender issues. Regarding issues related to fairness like "quota," similar words extracted included "reverse discrimination," "national universities," "regional universities," "night duty," "conscription," "ruling party," and "proportional representation."

On the other hand, in the survey results, the most masculine words were "Bukhan (North Korea)" along with the People Power Party. This seems related to the fact that men in their 20s gave over 70% of their votes to Mayor Oh Se-hoon (based on exit poll results). Following were "hip-hop," "games," and "socialism." Feminine words included "feminism," "vegetarianism," "drama," "childcare," and "eco-friendliness."