A recent study focused on modern behavior shows that people who own an iPad or iPhone are… rich. This study looked at modern types of behaviour and how they’re linked to the income of a household. Let’s see what the actual idea is.
Apparently, also owning an Android phone in USA and using Verizon are signs that you’re in the 1%, or close. Economists from the University of Chicago explained in their paper that “no other individual brand is as predictive of being high income as owning an Apple iPhone”. The same goes for the iPad and it seems that simply by looking at the tablet’s ownership you could tell someone was doing well.
The experts could find a person with an iPhone in 2016 and accurately predict wealth in 69% of cases. That means an iDevice owner has bigger changes of being in being in the top quartile of income per household in USA. It all comes from researchers at Mediamark Research Intelligence, which sampled a base of 6394 people.
The date includes bi-annual questions and info on household income, obtained via face to face interview. A machine learning algorithm was put to work in order to look at various groups of people and their preferences over time. Cultural differences don’t seem to be getting larger over time, when it comes to common brands or experiences.
This contradicts the current message in the media, saying that the US is a more divided society. Interestingly, signs of a high income change, as for example in 2004 soy sauce was such an indicator.
