In this year's Culture Barometer, we present a new model for analyzing cultural consumption that we promise to expand on in future reports, given the importance of the findings obtained. Since, in methodological terms, we consider all cultural consumption for this study, regardless of the medium used (concert hall, television or internet, for example) and the extent of the cost, or lack thereof, of accessing cultural activities, we easily arrive at very high percentages of cultural practices. We can safely say that all respondents consumed some form of cultural activity in the 12 months prior to the survey.

However, we know that there are different types of consumption and that, for example, it is effectively different to watch a film at home because it is on TV or to go to the cinema on purpose and buy a ticket to see a film. Thus, we define two essential variables to analyze these types of consumption: the obligation to travel and the existence of an access cost. In general terms, we establish that proactive consumption of cultural activities implies travel and/or an access cost, while reactive consumption is determined only by the practice of freely accessible cultural activities that do not require travel. Therefore, using the previous example, someone who watches a film at home because it is on TV has engaged in reactive consumption, while someone who travels to go to the cinema has engaged in proactive consumption.

In a concrete way, through the variables available in this questionnaire, we made the best possible approximation to the generic definition mentioned, using these criteria:

Proactive consumption

Reactive consumption

• Respondents who only answered Television and/or Internet to the question “Through what medium(s) did you watch films in the last year?”
• Respondents who only answered Television and/or Social Media in the question “Through which medium(s) did you watch theater shows in the last year?”
• Respondents who only answered Television and/or Social Media in the question “Through which medium(s) did you watch the video?”
• concerts?”
• Respondents who only answer Virtual Visits in the question “Were these visits in person or virtual?”

We are aware that there are limitations in defining these criteria - watching a theatre show through a theatre website may be free, or taking a virtual tour of a museum may have an access fee - but we believe that it is preferable to experiment with this analysis, not least because of the similarity of the results obtained. As mentioned, we will certainly examine this model in detail in the coming years, resulting in possible new questions or adaptations of existing questions.

At the end of the day, by applying this type of analysis, we can, through two simple concepts - proactive consumption and reactive consumption - discover who is more predisposed to cultural consumption.

47% of respondents stated that they had engaged in proactive consumption, while 71% indicated that they had engaged in reactive consumption. The total consumption is greater than 100% because the questions regarding the criteria used have multiple answers. Thus, we reached a first significant conclusion: less than half of respondents had purposefully traveled to an act of cultural consumption and/or paid to have access to it.

And how do people with these profiles view the role of culture in their lives? There is a substantial difference in the importance they give to culture, as can be seen in the following graph.

The relevance of culture to the lives of each of these profiles is then materialized in the actual cultural consumption itself, as can be seen in the table below. It is clear that proactive consumers have a much more significant cultural behavior, with a much higher level of cultural practices compared to the average and even higher compared to reactive consumers, with the exception of watching films.

When we asked respondents about the cultural spaces they actually visited to participate in cultural activities, we also came to the conclusion that proactive consumers are much more available, presenting, in many cases, values ​​that represent double those presented by reactive consumers.

The former are also those who most expressively mention the need to increase the State Budget for culture next year.

According to the latest State Budget, the Portuguese state will spend 0,25% of its annual budget on culture. Next year the Portuguese state should invest:

Based on this data, we can deduce that proactive consumers can be considered the primary audience for cultural activities. They are probably the pioneers in cultural practices and those who seek the most information about this sector.

Therefore, it is important to try to know them in detail and monitor their evolution in the coming years, while it is also important to know the profile of reactive consumers.

Every two weeks we dive into the Culture Barometer to bring you new analyses on the relationship between the Portuguese population and culture.

The Culture Barometer is an annual study that analyzes the opinions of the Portuguese people on culture. Conducted for the first time in 2019, this year's questionnaire focused mainly on the consequences of the pandemic on society and culture. Learn more about the 2022 report here and request your full report here.

Summary Technical Sheet

The study universe consists of individuals aged 15 or over, residing in mainland Portugal and the islands. The sample, with 1.200 validated interviews, was stratified by region, sex and age group, in mainland Portugal, and by islands, and distributed in each stratum according to the distribution of the target population in each stratum. The interviews were conducted from March 22 to April 19, 2022, through an online questionnaire using the CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interview) method. The results are presented with a 95% confidence level. The margin of error for the mean on a scale of 1 to 10 is 0,14 points and the margin of error for the proportion is 3,13 percentage points.