Are Americans ‘Morally Bad’? Most Seem To Think So, New Survey Finds

More than half of United States residents believe their fellow Americans are “morally bad,” according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, in which America was the only country among 25 studied where a majority of respondents held that view.In the survey of more than 30,000 people conducted during the first half of 2025, respondents were asked whether they considered their fellow countrymen to be morally very good, somewhat good, somewhat bad or very bad. In America, just 47 percent approved of their countrymen’s morals compared to 53 percent who deemed their fellow citizens morally deficient.Other nations where respondents held a dim view of their compatriots’ morals included Turkey (49 percent), Brazil (48 percent), and Greece (44 percent). Respondents were least likely to say their fellow citizens are morally bad in Canada (7 percent), Indonesia (8 percent) and India (9 percent).“Because we have never asked this question before, we don’t know whether a majority of Americans have long held a skeptical view of the ethics of fellow Americans, or if it’s something new — and if so, what’s driving it,” the study’s authors said in the report released Thursday. “But partisan politics appear to play a role.”Indeed, the researchers found that 60 percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents were skeptical of their fellow citizens’ morals compared to 46 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.However, Pew said, “this partisan pattern is not unique to the U.S. In more than half of the countries surveyed, people who don’t support the governing party are particularly likely to view their fellow citizens as immoral.”That appears to be borne out by a Pew study published in 2022, when Democrats were in control of the White House and Congress. In that survey, 72 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of Democrats said they believed people in the opposing party were “immoral.”That survey also recorded large increases over the previous six years in the number of Americans who believed people from the opposing party were dishonest, closed-minded, unintelligent, and lazy.Karen Swallow Prior, a Christian author who writes about morality and ethics, told the Washington Post she believes that political rhetoric and a flood of social media activity are fueling the idea in America that “bad” people are everywhere.“Almost every moral issue has become politicized,” she said. We have two parties that cannot and will not work with one another and demonize one another, so it’s not surprising at all that our perception of one another’s goodness would be so low.”Alternatively, the Pew study authors write, it may simply be that Americans are more moralistic, in general, than people in other countries. But, they note, “the results of other survey questions don’t support the idea that the U.S. public is especially judgmental.”When asked whether they consider each of several specific activities to be immoral, Americans came down close to the middle among residents of the 25 countries surveyed.Americans, along with Indonesians and Turks at 92 percent each, were among the most likely to say that extramarital sex is immoral, while only 55 percent of Germans and 53 percent of French adults shared that view.At the other end of the spectrum, Americans were among the most accepting of marijuana use and gambling, with just 23 percent and 29 percent finding those activities morally bad. In most other countries surveyed, more than 40 percent of adults considered such behavior morally wrong.

Are Americans ‘Morally Bad’? Most Seem To Think So, New Survey Finds

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