Americans More Liberal On Moral Issues, Grow Pessimistic About The Future
Americans are growing increasingly progressive in several areas of morality while also growing increasingly concerned about the current state of moral values and pessimistic about the future.
According to the latest Gallup survey on moral issues, U.S. adults are more likely than ever to see abortion, suicide, and polygamy as morally acceptable. In addition, married men and women having an affair, divorce, stem cell research using human embryos, having a child outside of marriage, and sex between teenagers are near their highest levels of public acceptability.
Currently, 54 percent of Americans say abortion is morally acceptable, while 37 percent believe it is morally wrong. Since 2001, moral support for abortion had hovered around the upper 30s and low 40s but has grown in the past several years. In 2019, 42 percent said abortion was morally OK and 50 percent believed it was immoral. Since that time, however, the trends have been in favor of abortion.
More than one in five U.S. adults (22 percent) believe suicide is morally acceptable, a high-water mark reached once before in 2022. The 71 percent who believe it is immoral is the lowest on record since Gallup began the survey in 2001, when 13 percent said suicide was moral and 78 percent thought it was morally wrong. More Americans see doctor-assisted suicide as a moral choice (53 percent).
Almost a quarter of Americans (23 percent) now find polygamy to be morally acceptable, while 74 percent disagree. The supportive percentage has been steady for the past three years, but those opposed to the practice are at their lowest percentage. The morally acceptable percentage has risen steadily since 2010 when just seven percent felt polygamy was OK.
Just 11 percent of U.S. adults say having an affair while married is OK. That is the second highest level of support, however, only behind 12 percet in 2023. Before 2016, adultery had never reached 10 perent who said it was morally acceptable. Recently, however, support has been in the double digits for three of the past four years.
Large numbers of adults also find use of birth control (90 percent), drinking alcohol (86 percent), in vitro fertilization (or IVF) (82 percent), divorce (78 percent), smoking marijuana (70 percent), sex between an unmarried man and woman (69 percent), having a baby outside of marriage (68 percent), gambling (66 percent), gay or lesbian relations (64 percent), and stem cell research using human embryos (63 percent) morally acceptable.
Fewer back pornography (38 percent), cloning animals (34 percent), and cloning humans (12 percent). Americans are more split on buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur (59 percent say it is morally acceptable versus 37 percent say it is morally wrong), the death penalty (55 percent versus 39 percent), destroying frozen embryos created by IVF (49 percent versus 43 percent), medical testing on animals (48 percent versus 46 percent), changing one’s gender (44 percent versus 51 percent), and sex between teenagers (43 percent versus 50 percent).
While U.S. adults have grown more liberal in their moral outlook, according to Gallup, they’ve also grown increasingly wary of the country’s morality. Currently, half of Americans (49 percent) say they would rate the overall state of moral values in the country as poor.
A third (34 percent) say they’re fair, 14 percent rate them as good, and just one percent say they’re excellent. Subtracting the poor percentage from the combined good and excellent ratings gives the current moral perspective score a minus 34 — down 12 points from 2002.
Overwhelmingly, Americans think the moral values of the country are worsening. Around four in five U.S. adults (81 percent) say the state of moral values is getting worse, and only 14 percent say it’s getting better. That gives the future outlook a minus 67 score — down 24 points from 2002.
This article was originally published at Lifeway Research.
Aaron Earls is the senior writer at Lifeway Research.