In a new 25-country survey, the United States gained a dubious honor: Americans were more likely than any other nation surveyed to think their fellow citizens were “morally bad” people.
When Pew Research Center asked people around the world to rate the morality and ethics of people within their country last year, most people had faith and trust in the morality of other people living in their nation ― but Americans didn’t.
In the survey, a majority of U.S. adults said fellow Americans were morally bad (53%) rather than morally good (47%).
The Pew Research Center report’s lead author, Jonathan Evans, said what was especially “striking” was that Americans were not so negative about specific issues.
“What we find is that the U.S. is often towards the middle of the pack,” he said. “So it’s neither the country where the highest percentage are saying something is morally wrong, nor are they the least likely on all of these measures.” On specific habits that other countries judged more harshly, like having an abortion and drinking alcohol, the U.S. was in the middle about whether these polarizing actions were morally unacceptable or morally acceptable.
