Real Conservatism^© refers to a pattern of responses offered by respondents who are cautious about new things and ideas. Generally part of the "establishment", a central concern in this segment is maintaining a disciplined, predictable and safe society. They hold very conservative social, moral and ethical values and generally feel that things are not as good as they used to be.

They are willing to pay more for products which guarantee consistent value and quality, and are particularly attracted to older, well established brands.

Part of their conservative nature and a strong belief in the merits of saving drives them to accumulate assets. This will usually be property, antiques, art and gold - things that will hold their value. However, whilst they generally are asset rich, they are cash poor. They dislike and distrust anything new, speculative or innovative.

Growing up in the "old school" they very much believe its not what you know but who you know. The "old school tie" is important with this segment, providing a sense of tradition and reflecting the long term, binding nature of their relationships. Marriage is for life, you work your way up in your job from office clerk to CEO, and you show loyalty to your friends, family and employer.

Believing strongly in the established order of things, this segment is often dictatorial, distant (you keep yourself to yourself), believe that children (and subordinates) should be seen and not heard, and that a woman's place is in the home.

The Real Conservatism^© segment tends to be slightly heavier readers of newspapers, particularly Sunday and suburban due to their greater interest in their own local community. Their magazine readership tends to be medium to light, concentrating on older, established and more conservative magazines such as Woman’s Day, Women's Weekly, Better Homes and Gardens, Readers Digest and the various Auto Club magazines.

Their commercial television viewing on the whole is average, although they are inclined to watch current affairs programmes such as Today Tonight and Sixty Minutes; and they’re voracious watchers of News programmes. They are also interested in documentary feature style programmes such as Australian Story.   

* Devised by Michele Levine of Roy Morgan Research and Colin Benjamin of The Horizons Network 1997.