We saw last week that there is sometimes a great divergence among Americans regarding opinions about topics that are subject to public debate. When the Pew Research Center scientists looked at the data just for young adults (18 to 29) and the oldest grouping (65 and over) we see a great difference of opinion. Furthermore, there is an interesting conflict of sentiment within each grouping depending upon political leaning.
If I had room to discuss every age group, you’d see that attitudes change somewhat as people age. For example, opinions about spanking children become more moderate as the age groupings increase, but there is still a significant gap between the young and the old. Whereas attitudes toward homosexuality become much more extreme among oldsters.
Youngest to oldest
The greatest attitude change from “being immoral” to “being morally acceptable” can be seen in the opinions of the youngest age group to the oldest. Thirty-three percent of 18-to-29-year-olds view “being extremely rich (meaning having billions of dollars) as being immoral, and only 10 percent of those over 65 share the belief that being a billionaire is immoral. Young people don’t believe in spanking children (35 percent believe it is immoral), but 18 percent of oldsters disagree. In the first case, the difference between young and old is 23 points; in the second case, it’s 17 points.
Forty-three percent of youngsters believe that the death penalty is immoral; only 29 percent of oldsters agree. A difference of 14 percentage points.
Here are the other behaviors that young people find to be morally wrong compared to people 65 and older.
• Getting a divorce: 18 percent to 28 percent
• Using contraceptives: 5 percent to 13 percent
• Using in vitro fertilization: 7 percent to 14 percent
• Eating meat: 2 percent to 7 percent
• Gambling: 9 percent to 33 percent
• Drinking alcohol: 14 percent to 17 percent.
On the other hand, here are the things that oldsters find to be morally wrong compared to the younger respondents. Here are the survey results from youngest to oldest:
• Having a marital affair: 89 percent to 91 percent
• Using marijuana: 21 percent to 25 percent
• Committing assisted suicide: 33 percent to 39 percent
• Having an abortion: 40 percent to 49 percent
• Being homosexual: 30 percent to 46 percent
• Viewing pornography: 45 percent to 67 percent.
Political orientation
The youngest-to-oldest divide exists even within political parties. And in some cases, political leaning makes a significant difference. For example, among all adults, young American adults are much more likely than older adults to say that being extremely rich is morally wrong. One-third of 18-to-29-year-olds take this stance, compared to only 10 percents of those age 65 or older. But here’s what emerges when we break down the data according to political leanings, stated from youngest group to oldest group.
Fourteen percent of the youngest Republicans find it morally wrong to be extremely rich, while only 5 percent of the oldest share this view. Forty-eight percent of young Democrats find it morally wrong, compared to 15 percent of those 65 and older.
This general pattern holds true for the other categories previously stated. Although the researchers don’t draw any conclusions from the data that they report, I’ll hazard a guess that there is greater cohesion among Republicans than there is among Democrats because the divergence between young and old is greater in all the categories among Democrats than it is among Republicans.
Gender differences
The percentages of men and women are about the same for most of the fifteen behaviors tested by the Pew researchers. In most cases, the difference of opinion is not more than two or three percentage points. In only four cases is there significant disagreement.
Nineteen percent of women think that getting a divorce is morally wrong, but that opinion is shared by 28 percent of men, a difference of 9 percentage points. Forty-four percent of women believe that having an abortion is morally wrong, and that’s the opinion of 51 percent of men, a seven percentage-point difference.
Women exhibit greater acceptance of homosexuality. Thirty-seven percent of women think that homosexuality is morally wrong, but 43 percent of men oppose homosexuality, a difference of six percentage points.
The greatest difference of opinion regards the viewing of pornography. Forty-seven percent of women judge viewing pornography as being morally wrong, and (I suppose quite a surprise to most people) 58 percent of men consider the behavior to be morally wrong, a difference of 11 percentage points.
As my friend Earl Babbie, author of the best-selling college textbook Doing Social Research among many other books in his field, often tells his audience, “Your opinion is as good as mine.” And that’s all that the Pew researchers are reporting. They are not attempting to make judgments about these behaviors. However, social psychologists agree that opinions and attitudes are guides to behavior.
This is where values come into play. Liz may have the opinion that smoking cigarettes is a bad habit and often leads to lung cancer. However, it is extremely important to her to have a just-stepped-off-the-cover-of-Vogue appearance. So, rather than have a calorie-laden snack, she has a cigarette in her shortened life.
The difference between opinions and values, like the difference between beliefs and behaviors, can cause a kind of cognitive dissonance. Liz holds the opinion that smoking is bad for her health, yet she continues to smoke because of her values. And this is where CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) can help her, but that’s a topic for another column.
This is also the thing that confuses us about opinions and behaviors. John may believe that adultery is wrong, but he is enjoying the extramarital affair with Mary. Mary may believe that watching pornography is immoral, but she watches it with John because it pleases him and adds variety to their sexual encounters.
So, surveys on topics like morality may reveal how people feel about certain topics, but we should not jump to the conclusion that people will always act in accordance with their opinions.
• • •
Jim Glynn is Professor Emeritus of Sociology. He may be contacted at j_glynn@att.net. Nearly three decades ago, he led a luncheon discussion, “Madera, Values, and Behavior.” It was scheduled for noon to 1 p.m., but it lasted until almost 3 p.m. with several members of the local clergy participating.