We study the extent to which individuals' consumption decisions are influenced by firms' stances on controversial social issues, and the implied incentives for firms to engage in such stances. We use transactions from a major payment cards company to quantify consumption responses to firms' stances and to infer individuals' likely views on social issues. The social stances taken by firms increase revenue on average, with significant heterogeneity across consumers and firm stances. Consumers most socially-aligned with a firm's stance increase their consumption at the firm by about 20 percent in the month following widely-covered social stance events, and consumers most opposed to the firm's stance decrease their consumption by about 10 percent. These diverging consumption responses decrease in magnitude over time but persist even a year after the firm's stance. Firms tend to take stances that align with the social preferences of their consumer base, and the direction of a firm's social stance is also correlated with the firm's ownership structure, employee preferences, and owner preferences.
