March Madness

March Madness is a bigger draw for US consumers than the Mueller Report, but almost half of them don’t really care about either one, according to a new poll conducted by Finn Partners.

A survey of 3,000 Americans showed that while 23.2 percent of respondents said they were more interested in the Mueller Report than in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, 28.6 percent were more focused on March Madness.

But both of those numbers were dwarfed by the 48.2 percent of respondents who said they “have no interest in either of them.”

Age, gender and geography all had a marked effect on consumer interest in both topics. In the Northeast, Mueller beat out basketball by a 28 percent to 25 percent margin, whereas in the South, 34 percent were more interested in March Madness, with only 21 percent saying they had more interest in the Mueller Report.

In general, men tended to rank the tournament over the results of the Mueller probe, with the opposite being the case for women. Older Americans had greater interest in the report, with women over 65 registering the most interest in the report of any demographic.

But Gen Z, despite their much-touted political awareness, was three times as likely to show more interest in the tournament than they were to favor the report. In addition, Gen Zers were the consumer segment most likely not to care about either topic (54 percent).

Finn’s survey was conducted between March 22 and March 24.