A small majority of Americans view their fellow citizens as morally bad, a new survey suggests, while the vast majority of Canadians have the exact opposite view.
The two countries are at the polar opposite ends of a 25-nation survey on morality conducted by the Pew Research Center and released Thursday, which asked people around the world to rate the morals and ethics of others in their country.
While just 47 per cent of American adults surveyed said Americans overall are morally good — the lowest score of any country — 92 per cent of Canadians had a positive moral view of other Canadians, tying with Indonesia at the top of the list.
Only seven per cent of Canadians said their fellow citizens were morally bad, compared to 53 per cent of Americans.
The report’s authors note that Pew has never asked this question before, so it could not say if Americans’ negative view of their fellow citizens’ morality is new or what’s driving it, but suggested political partisanship may be a factor.
“In the United States, Democrats are more likely to rate their fellow Americans as morally and ethically bad than are Republicans” by a margin of 60 per cent versus 46 per cent, lead author Jonathan Evans told Global News.
However, he noted the pattern of “people that are not supportive of the governing party being more likely to view fellow citizens as immoral, that’s something we saw in quite a few countries around the world.”
That includes Canada, where 12 per cent of respondents who support the Conservative Party said they viewed other Canadians as immoral or unethical, versus four per cent of Liberal Party supporters and three per cent of NDP supporters.
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An Ipsos poll conducted for NPR in January found that, while 61 per cent of Americans felt the U.S. should be a moral leader on the world stage, only 39 per cent felt the country was living up to that position — down from 60 per cent in 2017.
Divide over morality of social issues
The Pew survey also asked whether respondents viewed specific issues like extramarital affairs, divorce, abortion, homosexuality and gambling as moral or immoral.
Across every question, Canadians were less likely than Americans to view each issue as morally unacceptable, though Evans noted the difference for some issues were within the margin of error of 3.6 per cent for Canada and 1.9 per cent for the U.S.
For example, just eight per cent of Americans said using contraceptives was immoral, versus six per cent of Canadians. Similar numbers also frowned upon gambling (29 per cent in the U.S., compared to 27 per cent in Canada) and viewing pornography (52 per cent versus 48 per cent).
However, Americans outpaced Canadians far more in viewing homosexuality (39 per cent versus 15 per cent), having an abortion (47 per cent versus 19 per cent), having an extramarital affair (90 per cent versus 76 per cent) and getting a divorce (23 per cent versus 11 per cent) as immoral.
“I think in some ways there is a difference between Canada and the U.S., and in some things there’s a fair bit of similarity across these questions,” Evans said.
Ipsos polling has shown a similar divide between Canadians and Americans on certain social issues, particularly LGBTQ2+ rights.
Last year’s Ipsos Pride Survey of 26 countries found 68 per cent of Canadians believe same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, compared to 53 per cent of Americans.
A 2023 global survey on abortion by Ipsos, meanwhile, found 69 per cent of Canadians believe abortion should be legal, versus 55 per cent in the U.S.
Evans noted most of the 25 countries surveyed have seen their views on many of these issues become more moderate since the last time Pew asked these questions in 2013.
An exception was India’s views on divorce, where 65 per cent now say it’s wrong compared to 53 per cent over a decade ago.
“Now that another decade has passed, we wanted to just better understand the lay of the land, if there are differences regionally or whatnot, because this is a topic that gets discussed a lot in various spaces in the U.S. and in other countries around the world about what should and should not be acceptable in society,” he said.
Not hard to understand Americans viewing their fellow man as immoral or unethical when you an ol’ conman, felon and grifter, Trump, as your leader!
Obvious.
They need guns to feel safe from each other. duh…..
Rob Wise
“In the USA the Democrats are more radical and violent. Assassination attempts against the government, violent protests, attacks against law enforcement. Canadian Liberals are more laid back, just run around waving their elbows up and down like a duck.”
You guys seem to forgotten the politician assassination in Minnesota. Typical MAGANUK
The far-right insanity in this comment thread is truly disturbing. These violent, fascistic criminals will stop at nothing to take all of your liberties and freedoms away. They attack anyone different than them. They don’t want democracy, they want authoritarian daddy to crack down on those they don’t like. I appreciate liberal democratic and enlightenment values. Science. Education. Critical thinking. These far-right lack all of that.
Have a good job in the USA and live outside of an idiot zine like New York or California and life is way better . Less taxes, cheaper products, great healthcare that you can afford by self pay due to less taxes or good employers help with . In Houston you can buy a great house for $300,000k and many many other places. Better national parks, way more habitable land, more geographical diversity,
More historical restored buildings. Better laws (in good states ) to protect oneself and just all around better more outgoing customer service . I spend 4 month a year travelling USA and would happily move to Idaho , Utah, Texas or others in a second . Once the next Democrat gets in I’ll just drag my house there as an illegal.
These type of articles are just useless trash and appeal to the low rent, no travelled, small minded socialists that are far to a plenty in Canada . This nation has been a failure for going on 20 years. Elbows up ! Enjoy your bragging about nothing . Kinda like gloating about your fat wife .
In the USA the Democrats are more radical and violent. Assassination attempts against the government, violent protests, attacks against law enforcement. Canadian Liberals are more laid back, just run around waving their elbows up and down like a duck.
From Desiderata1927
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Wow….just wow.
This is literally the dumbest news article ive ever read in 42 years.