Partisanship and Political Animosity in 2016
The 2016 campaign is unfolding against a backdrop of intense partisan division and animosity. Partisans’ views of the opposing party are now more negative than at any point in nearly a quarter of a century.
2012 Republican Primary Voters: More Conservative Than GOP General Election Voters
Survey Report Next week, Republican voters will begin the process of selecting their party’s 2016 presidential nominee. One of the major questions will be which GOP voters turn out, and which stay home. A person’s past voting history can be a powerful predictor of future turnout. A new analysis of the Republican electorate in 2012, […]
Beyond Distrust: How Americans View Their Government
A year ahead of the presidential election, the American public is deeply cynical about government, politics and the nation’s elected leaders in a way that has become quite familiar. Currently, just 19% say they can trust the government always or most of the time, among the lowest levels in the past half-century. Only 20% […]
Most Millennials Resist the ‘Millennial’ Label
Survey Report Millennials will soon become the nation’s largest living generation. They already have surpassed Generation X to make up the largest share of the U.S. workforce. Despite the size and influence of the Millennial generation, however, most of those in this age cohort do not identify with the term “Millennial.” Just 40% of adults […]
What the Public Knows — In Pictures, Words, Maps and Graphs
Survey Report Before you read the report, test your own News IQ by taking the interactive knowledge quiz. The short quiz tests your knowledge of questions recently asked in a national poll. After completing the quiz, you can compare your score with the general public and with people like yourself. Take the Quiz The latest […]
The Politics of Financial Insecurity
While the least financially secure Americans are more likely to back Democrats, that support is undercut by low political participation. Those who are financially insecure are far more likely to opt out of the political system altogether.
Political Polarization in Action: Insights into the 2014 Election from the American Trends Panel
Survey Report The Pew Research Center has developed a new tool for looking at the 2014 elections – a panel survey that enables us to check in with the same representative group of Americans several times during the course of the campaign. This survey includes far more information about respondents than is found in a […]
Teaching the Children: Sharp Ideological Differences, Some Common Ground
People with consistently conservative political values are particularly likely to say it is important to teach children religious faith, while those with consistently liberal values stand out for the priority they give to teaching tolerance.
Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology
Our latest political typology sorts voters into cohesive groups based on their attitudes and values and provides a field guide for the constantly changing political landscape.
Political Polarization in the American Public
Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines – and partisan acrimony is deeper and more extensive – than at any point in recent history. And these trends manifest themselves in myriad ways, both in politics and in everyday life.
Government Surveillance: A Question Wording Experiment
In the wake of leaked information about the government’s telephone and digital surveillance programs last month, public opinion surveys reported a wide range of reactions. For example, a Pew Research Center/Washington Post survey conducted immediately after the revelations found broad support for the program, while a Gallup survey conducted just days later found more […]
A Comparison of Results from Surveys by the Pew Research Center and Google Consumer Surveys
As internet use grows– whether through a traditional computer, tablet, gaming device or cell phone – new techniques are being developed to conduct social research and measure people’s behavior and opinion while they are online. The Pew Research Center has been exploring these new techniques for measuring public opinion and critically evaluating how they compare […]
Party Affiliation and Election Polls
In every campaign cycle, pollwatchers pay close attention to the details of every election survey. And well they should. But focusing on the partisan balance of surveys is, in almost every circumstance, the wrong place to look. The latest Pew Research Center survey conducted July 16-26 among 1,956 registered voters nationwide found 51% supporting Barack […]
Assessing the Representativeness of Public Opinion Surveys
For decades survey research has provided trusted data about political attitudes and voting behavior, the economy, health, education, demography and many other topics. But political and media surveys are facing significant challenges as a consequence of societal and technological changes. It has become increasingly difficult to contact potential respondents and to persuade them to […]
The Growing Gap between Landline and Dual Frame Election Polls
The Growing Gap between Landline and Dual Frame Election Polls; Republican Vote Share Bigger in Landline-Only Surveys
A new analysis of Pew Research Center pre-election surveys conducted this year finds that support for Republican candidates was significantly higher in samples based only on landlines than in dual frame samples that combined landline and cell phone interviews. The difference in the margin among likely voters this year is about twice as large as in 2008.
