Do Americans want businesses to stop dipping into cultural issues, including the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) movement? A new poll finds people are souring on them engaging in this behavior. 

Last week, Gallup published its new Bentley-Gallup Business in Society Report finding a majority of Americans don’t want businesses to continue wading into current events—especially ESG and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The report was conducted in May 2023. 

Their poll found a majority of respondents—59%—don’t want corporations to take public stances on divisive topics. This is down from 52% in 2022. 

Unlike Republicans and independents, Democrats support companies wading into politics. 

Gallup explained, “Political party identification has the strongest influence on whether Americans believe corporations should take a public stance. Most Democrats (62%) believe businesses should take a public stance on current events, compared with just 17% of Republicans and 36% of independents.” But Democrats are even souring on this behavior, with this figure being a 10% decrease from 2022.

Interestingly enough, support from Black American respondents, a demographic most likely to support businesses taking stances, declined from 72% in 2022 to 61% in 2023. 

The report concluded, “Like business leaders, the public has mixed views on whether businesses should weigh in on these often complex and nuanced issues.” 

Pushback to current events, including ESG, is clearly working. 

As I noted at IWF last month, financial asset managers are ditching ESG funds: 

On September 15th, BlackRock announced its ridding of two ESG mutual funds. BlackRock joins others—State Street Corp., Janus Henderson Group, and Columbia Threadneedle Investments—in dissolving ESG funds altogether this year, bringing the total amount of dissolved ESG exchange-traded funds (ETF) and mutual funds to 12. 

Americans are increasingly rewarding companies that don’t engage in virtue signaling. Pulling a “Bud Light” or going full FTX has ruinous consequences.

To learn more about ESG funds, go HERE.