Americans are divided on the morality of issues such as homosexuality, pornography, and abortion, and opinions are even more polarized between political parties, according to a March 19 Pew Research Center report.
Pew found that 52% of Americans say viewing pornography is morally wrong, while 15% say it is morally acceptable and 32% say it is not a moral issue. Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to object to pornography on moral grounds (65% vs. 39%).
A similar pattern emerges on the issue of abortion. Forty-seven percent of Americans say having an abortion is morally wrong, and 21% say it is morally acceptable. About three in 10 say abortion is not a moral issue.
Abortion is the issue Republicans feel most strongly about in the survey: 71% say having an abortion is morally wrong. However, only 24% of Democrats hold the same view.
According to Pew, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to view behaviors that go against family life as morally wrong. Nearly six in 10 Republicans and two in 10 Democrats say homosexuality is morally wrong, and 33% of Republicans and 13% of Democrats morally object to getting divorced.
Conversely, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to object on moral grounds to social and justice-related issues. Forty-eight percent of Democrats, compared with 20% of Republicans, say the death penalty is morally wrong. Democrats are also more likely to say that spanking children (35% vs. 12%) and being extremely rich (29% vs. 7%) are morally wrong.
Out of the several religious groups Pew surveyed, white evangelical Protestants have the most traditionally conservative views on the morality of the behaviors Pew asked about. Eighty percent say viewing pornography is not morally acceptable, compared with 56% of Catholics who say the same. Seventy-two percent of white evangelicals morally oppose homosexuality, compared with 34% of Catholics.
Pew also tracked the disparity between young and old Americans’ views on morality. Adults aged 18 to 29 were more likely than older adults to morally object to being extremely rich and spanking children, but older adults were more likely to say homosexuality is morally wrong.
Men and women had different moral objections to various issues. Men were more likely than women to say getting a divorce (28% vs. 19%), having an abortion (51% vs. 44%), and homosexuality, (43% vs. 37%). Women were most likely to morally oppose viewing pornography, with 58% of women considering it wrong and 47% of men saying the same.
The survey also asked respondents whether Americans as a whole are morally and ethically good. While 47% of U.S. adults say they see other Americans as morally good, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to agree (54% vs. 40%).
Overall, 53% of Americans say other Americans are immoral or unethical, a trend that Pew noted was not found in other countries that it surveyed. In most other countries, more people viewed their fellow citizens as morally good rather than bad.