ew survey results released
on May 21st, 2018, by
the Diamond Producers
Association (DPA), an
international alliance of the world’s
leading diamond mining companies, and
The Harris Poll demonstrate that a clear
majority of Americans recognise that
diamonds created in a factory (also known
as ‘synthetic’ or ‘laboratory-grown’) are
not ‘real’ diamonds. Conducted on May
3rd-7th, the DPA-Harris Interactive poll
surveyed a nationally representative
sample of 2,000 people. Nearly seven in
ten (68%) made such a distinction with a
significant majority saying that syntheticN
Americans Do Not
Consider Synthetics To Be
Real Diamonds: Survey
64 SOLITAIRE INTERNATIONAL JULY 2018diamonds are not real because they are not
‘natural’, nor ‘from the earth’, or because
they are made by people. A few Americans
(16%) said that a diamond created in a
factory is ‘real’.
Consumers described real diamonds
as ‘genuine’, ‘natural’ and ‘authentic’. They
called laboratory-grown diamonds ‘man-
made’, ‘artificial’ and ‘imitation’. “Diamonds
are billion-year-old treasures of the Earth
that came to us very, very slowly, which
makes them uniquely meaningful in
today’s on-demand world,” said DPA CEO
Jean-Marc Lieberherr. “At a time when
everything ‘artificial’ aims to compete with,
and replace, ‘natural’ and ‘real’, these resultsshow consumers care about the inherent
value, authenticity and symbolism that a
diamond carries.”
Added Lieberherr, “These results
are important, and confirm what our
consumers tell us: ‘Real Matters’—a
perspective shared across generations and
one that cannot be replicated in a matter of
weeks. The makers of synthetic diamonds
calling their products ‘real’ not only goes
against the spirit of existing terminology
standards, in opposition of consumer
belief, but they are also creating confusion
in the marketplace.”
The new survey adds to the DPA’s
much larger body of research, which aims