What We Love and Hate About America

NEW YORK, June 8 /PRNewswire/ --, 2010 – A new Harris Poll measures what Americans think about the United States or, more specifically, how they rate 16 elements of American life.

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Large majorities of the public give high marks to science and technology, the Constitution, the quality of life and colleges and universities.  Large majorities give poor marks to our political system, the economic system, public schools, the health care system and the legal system.

These are some of the findings of a Harris Poll® survey of 2,503 U.S. adults surveyed online between May 10 and 17, 2010 by Harris Interactive.  

Aspects of American life which get the most positive ratings, defined as those who rate them excellent or pretty good, are:

Other items that also receive positive ratings but from smaller majorities are:

The elements that receive the lowest positive ratings (where large majorities give either only fair or poor ratings) are:

Other elements that receive low ratings, but better than those above, are:

Words matter

The contrast between the 70% of adults who give the Constitution positive marks, the 23% who give the political system a positive rating and the 43% who give the system of government good marks is very striking.  Presumably, the system of government and the political system are based on the Constitution.  However, for many people, politics and government have strong negative connotations.  

Differences by political party

For many of the 16 elements on the list, the differences between Republicans, Democrats and Independents are small.  For example, science and technology gets positive ratings of 78%, 76% and 76% respectively.  However, on a few items, the differences are quite large.  For example:

• Civil rights get better marks from Republicans (70%) than from Democrats (53%);
• Equality of opportunity also gets more positive marks from Republicans (65%) than from Democrats (47%);
• The environment gets much better marks from Republicans (61%) than from Democrats (37%); and,
• On the other hand, the political system is viewed less favorably by Republicans (19%) than by Democrats (33%).

Differences by education

On almost all of the 16 items, the level of satisfaction is correlated with the level of education.  For example, those giving the system of government positive ratings increases from 31% of those with no more than a high school education to 45% of those with some college, 56% of those with a college degree, and 61% of those with post-graduate education.  This same gradient, or correlation with education, is true of the Constitution, quality of life, colleges and universities and standard of living, the legal systems, the economic system and the political system.

So what?

These results highlight the importance of granularity and the need to avoid sweeping generalizations about what people think about the United States – and other countries.  People see many elements that they like about the United States – and other things they dislike.  At one end of the spectrum, 75% of adults think well of American science and technology.  At the other, 77% have negative opinions about the political system.  

Methodology

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between May 10 and 17, 2010 among 2,503 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Where appropriate, these data were also weighted to reflect the composition of the adult online population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

The results of this Harris Poll may not be used in advertising, marketing or promotion without the prior written permission of Harris Interactive.

The Harris Poll® #75, June 8, 2010

By Humphrey Taylor, Chairman, The Harris Poll, Harris Interactive

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About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us – and our clients – stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

SOURCE Harris Interactive

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