Report: Path to 2024 – Corporate Political Action
Issue 4 Our fourth report in our Path to the 2024 Presidential Election series examines attitudes toward Corporate Political Action. Americans, our results show, do not want corporations to take positions on social issues, but there are differences along partisan lines: About the Path to 2024 Report Series PRL’s Path to 2024 report series is a new monthly chronicle covering partisan attitudes of Americans in the lead-up to the November 2024 presidential election. Each month, we focus on a different salient issue affecting voters and analyze public attitudes from our weekly public opinion poll. We will take on topics ranging from attitudes…
Report: Path to 2024 – Artificial Intelligence, Misinformation, and Democracy
Issue 3 Our third report in our series on Partisan Animosity and America in 2024 examines attitudes toward artificial intelligence and its implications for Americans’ personal and national safety. Our results show that concern about AI is widespread: Younger, more affluent, and non-white Americans are on average less likely to be worried about AI. There are also small differences along partisan lines: About the Path to 2024 Report Series PRL’s Path to 2024 report series is a new monthly chronicle covering partisan attitudes of Americans in the lead-up to the November 2024 presidential election. Each month, we focus on a…
Report: Cross-national comparisons of support for political violence
There is widespread concern about public support for political violence in the United States. Is this true in other democracies? Is the support for political violence we see in the US, which is small but not trivial, a US problem or a challenge facing democracies worldwide? In a new report, we contextualize support for political violence in the US with original survey data from five democracies: Brazil, India, Germany, Poland, and Israel. We find that public attitudes toward political violence correlate with the occurrence of political violence, with the highest amount of public support seen in India. In addition, differing…
Research Article: Americans Support Democratic Norms, Elected Officials Don’t
PRL study shows a strong divide between the attitudes of citizens and elected officials March 18, 2024 – In a new research article published today in PNAS, PRL researchers reveal that the American public, Democrats and Republicans alike, strongly oppose anti-democratic actions and partisan violence. Abstract from “Uncommon and nonpartisan: Antidemocratic attitudes in the American public”: Democratic regimes flourish only when there is broad acceptance of an extensive set of norms and values. In the United States, fundamental democratic norms have recently come under threat from prominent Republican officials. We investigate whether this antidemocratic posture has spread from the elite…
Report: The Path to 2024 – American Attitudes on Immigration
Issue 2 This second report in our series on Partisan Animosity in American presents results on American attitudes on immigration. It confirms immigration remains a deeply partisan issue across multiple dimensions. However, it also shows substantial numbers of Americans hold moderate views on immigration or have not fully made up their minds on the issue and different immigration policies have substantial variation in support. About the Path to 2024 Report Series PRL’s Path to 2024 report series is a new monthly chronicle covering partisan attitudes of Americans in the lead-up to the November 2024 presidential election. Each month, we focus…
Report: Americans Polarized on Free Speech
In partnership with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), PRL launched a new quarterly poll measuring Americans’ views on free speech. The first set of data were collected in January 2024. The results reveal partisan differences on views on free speech. Nearly 50% of Democrats (approximately 20 percentage points more than Republicans) think the country is moving toward the right direction on free speech, while nearly 37% (approximately 20 percentage points more than Democrats) of Republicans think freedom of speech is not at all secure in America today. The National Speech Index is a new quarterly component of America’s…
Report: The Path to 2024 – American Support for Partisan Violence
Issue 1 Our first report examines American attitudes toward the use of partisan violence. Do Americans support the use of violence to achieve partisan goals? Should we be worried about escalation of partisan violence? Using data from more than 73,000 interviews across 15 months, this report provides clarity on attitudes toward partisan violence and realistic areas to concentrate concern. About the Path to 2024 Report Series PRL’s Path to 2024 report series is a new monthly chronicle covering partisan attitudes of Americans in the lead-up to the November 2024 presidential election. Each month, we focus on a different salient issue…
Commentary: How do Americans think about distributive justice?
By Nic Dias, Graduate Fellow, Polarization Research Lab & Doctoral Candidate, University of Pennsylvania Democracies must ensure that benefits and burdens are distributed across citizens justly. Failing to do so is immoral (Rawls 1971). Moreover, the absence of distributive justice has many troubling consequences: material dissatisfaction (Alwin 1987), policy non-compliance (Verboon and van Dijke 2007), and theft (Umphress et al. 2009). Yet, do Americans have coherent preferences about distributive justice? How do they work through trade-offs between social goals such as ensuring wealth is determined by effort, providing for basic needs, and ensuring wealth equality? With a recent survey supported…
News: PRL at NGA’s Disagree Better Convening
September 12, 2023 — PRL Director Sean Westwood presented on a panel in Manchester, NH, at the National Governors Association Disagree Better Convening. The event featured discussions with leading, bipartisan experts and focused on “Correcting Misperceptions and Highlighting Commonalities.” The NGA civility initiative, led by NGA Chair Governor Cox (R-UT) and Vice-Chair Governor Polis (D-CO), aligns with PRL’s research demonstrating that reducing partisan animosity and correcting misperceptions in America requires an elite-led approach. In fact, correcting misperceptions among citizens may first necessitate correcting a misperception among elites that negativity is an effective strategy. Our work shows that public misperceptions are…
Commentary: Not All Elections are Presidential: But They Might Be More Partisan Than Ever
Derek Holliday Do presidential nominees dictate the fortunes of down-ballot candidates? While this has been a growing concern of many political commentators, I find evidence that elections for lower office are decided on partisan rather than presidential considerations. Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are viewed unfavorably by a majority of registered voters. Despite their unpopularity, both are likely to be their respective party’s nominee for the 2024 presidential election in a rematch of 2020 that few want to see again. This has Democrats and Republican political candidates for other offices worried; when voters go to the polls in 2024,…