STUDY: 2.7 Million Facebook Users Saw Red For Marriage Equality

A study by Facebook suggests that nearly 3 million people changed their profile photos in support of marriage equality.

According to Facebook’s report, roughly 2.7 million more people updated their profile photo on Tuesday, March 26 — a 120% increase from the previous Tuesday.

Facebook found that the surge in increased profile updates came as the Human Rights Campaign urged users to change their photo to the red equal sign in support of the historic gay marriage cases before the Supreme Court last week.

The report’s findings include:

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*Roughly 3.5% of 30-year-old Facebook users updated their profiles in response to the events surrounding the HRC campaign.

*On average, 2.3% more self-reported female users updated their profile photo, compared to 2.1% more self-reported males.

* Washtenaw County — home of Ann Arbor, Michigan and the University of Michigan — saw the largest increases in profile photo changes: 6.2% of users.

*Many of the top 25 counties that showed the greatest support for HRC’s campaign were home to college towns, including Orange (University of North Carolina), Durham (Duke University), Monroe (Indiana University), Johnson (University of Iowa), Athens (Ohio University), Dane (University of Wisconsin), Boulder (University of Colorado), and Travis (University of Texas at Austin).

*Many counties housing large cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City, showed only modest increases (2.4-2.9%) in support.

Photo: Reddit