Consumption Communities
We factor analyzed all the variables having correlation coefficients higher than .10 with one or more of the consumption communities. We chose items with loading of at least .45 to represent each of the 44 resulting factors, and we cross-tabulated these items with membership in the four consumption communities. Some of the results are represented in Tables 1.4 and 1.5. The analysis helped us find out some interesting characteristics of these consumption communities.
Attending Competitive Sports. Those who attend competitive sports events were more likely than people in the other consumption communities to play or buy video games and watch comedy shows (see Table 1.4). The video game relationship seems reasonable in that those who play video games compete by certain rules, sometimes in group settings. This relationship might also have something to do with having children at home. It turned out that over 63% of people in this community had at least one child living at home (versus 46% for those who did not attend competitive sports).
People who watch comedy shows, especially young males, enjoy put-downs and verbal (and sometimes physical) battling. The data showed that people watch fewer comedy shows as they age. We found that 72% of people in this community were younger than 45 years old (versus 42% for those who did not attend competitive sports) and that 55% of people from this community were male (versus 42% for those who did not attend competitive sports). We can conclude that this is a community dominated by young males.
Participating in Nature-Related Sports. As might be expected, those who participate in nature-related sports showed stronger interests in nature shows and programs on the Discovery Channel (see Table 1.4). They were less interested in their personal appearance (see Table 5) and less involved in community or civic activities (see Table 1.4). The results coincide with those of an earlier Life Style study, in which Wells and Reynolds (1979) pointed out that emphasis on nature is at some level related to the relative de-emphasis on mouthwash and deodorant. Men pay less attention to their appearance than women, and this community seems to be male-dominated: 53% of them were male (vs. 38% for those who did not attend nature-related sports). It is
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