(FORTUNE Magazine) – Customers like companies that support good causes. So concludes a survey on corporate social responsibility conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide on behalf of Cone Communications, a marketing firm in Boston. Among the findings: -- When choosing between products of equal price and quality, 78% of the respondents said they would buy the one made by a company that contributes to medical research, education, and the like. -- Two-thirds said they would switch brands to a manufacturer that began to support a cause they deemed worthy. -- One-third of those surveyed said they were more influenced by a company's social activism than by its advertising. -- Respondents identified Anheuser-Busch, Du Pont, General Motors, and Procter & Gamble as socially responsible. Dow Chemical, Exxon, and General Electric were viewed negatively, largely because of perceptions about their environmental records. The survey, based on interviews with 1,981 adults, also suggested that corporate America may be paying too much attention to the rights of minorities and women and not enough to what shows up elsewhere as the nation's top concern: fighting crime. Still, there are companies that try. Both Eastman Kodak and Polaroid, for example, provide cameras, film, and other equipment to help parents put together I.D. kits of their children to be used in the event the kids are abducted. Talk about giving customers what they want! So far, more than two million such kits have been issued.