Well, here’s something kind of interesting. The moral acceptability of the good people of the United States appears to be changing… for the better. We’re actually becoming more conservative and rejecting several progressive ideas, if this new poll from Gallup is to be believed.
Each year, since 2001, Gallup tracks Americans’ views of the moral acceptability of various social behaviors. They are:
- Birth control
- Divorce
- Sex between unmarried man and woman
- Gay or lesbian relations
- Medical research using stem cells from human embryos
- Having a baby outside of marriage
- Gambling
- Buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur
- The death penalty
- Abortion
- Doctor-assisted suicide
- Medical testing on animals
- Changing one’s gender
- Sex between teenagers
- Pornography
- Cloning animals
- Suicide
- Polygamy
- Cloning humans
- Extramarital affair
Those polled are asked: “Regardless of whether or not you think it should be legal, for each one, please tell me whether you personally believe that in general it is morally acceptable or morally wrong.” They can respond with “morally acceptable” or “morally wrong,” or say they have no opinion or it depends on the situation.
According to Gallup, “five of the 20 behaviors…have fallen significantly since last year, with each dropping between six and nine percentage points.”
They are (the percentage points are the number of people who found the item morally acceptable):
Those behaviors include using birth control (83%), having a baby outside of marriage (58%), gambling (57%), sex between teenagers (35%) and cloning animals (27%). Birth control, gambling and cloning animals have all hit record lows this year after holding relatively steady throughout most of the trend.
Despite those numbers, the five most morally acceptable items on the list, according to those who responded, are birth control, divorce, sex between an unmarried man and woman, gay and lesbian relationships, and medical research using stem cells from human embryos.
The five least morally acceptable items on the list were extramarital affairs, cloning humans, polygamy, suicide, and cloning animals.
Items like abortion, medical testing on animals, and doctor-assisted suicide were pretty evenly split.
And, of course, when you break it down between Republicans and Democrats, thing become a bit clearer. Here’s more on that:
For 14 of the 20 behaviors measured, significantly more Democrats than Republicans say each is morally acceptable, though the gaps vary widely. Democrats are 55 percentage points more likely than Republicans to find abortion and changing one’s gender morally acceptable. The partisan gap on gay or lesbian relations is not far behind, at 46 points. Differences of 24 to 38 points are seen in views on doctor-assisted suicide, teenage sex, premarital sex, having a baby outside of marriage, pornography, embryonic stem cell research and suicide.
In contrast, Republicans are considerably more likely than Democrats to find three behaviors acceptable. These include the death penalty (with a 43-point partisan gap), buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur (23 points), and medical testing on animals (eight points).
Independents’ views are most distinctive on the issue of polygamy, with 27% of this group versus 17% of Democrats and 7% of Republicans calling it morally acceptable.
While Democrats are the most likely to find birth control, divorce and gambling morally acceptable, majorities of all three party groups agree. At the other end of the spectrum, extramarital affairs, cloning humans and cloning animals draw similarly low acceptability across party lines.
Independents’ views of the moral acceptability of six behaviors have declined meaningfully over the past year. Their acceptance of divorce is down by 14 points, having a baby outside of marriage and gambling by 13 points each, birth control and pornography by 11 points each, and embryonic stem cell research by nine points.
Over the same period, Democrats have become significantly less likely to say three behaviors are acceptable: cloning animals (down 13 points), changing one’s gender (down 11 points) and polygamy (down 10 points). Among Republicans, views of the acceptability of teenage sex have dropped by 15 points, while divorce has risen 12 points.
Here’s a visual breakdown of how Democrats and Republicans voted for each item in the poll:
GALLUP: Partisans’ Views on Moral Acceptability (% who say “morally acceptable”
Abortion
🔵 Dems: 73%
🔴 Reps: 18%
—
Changing ones gender
🔵 Dems: 60%
🔴 Reps: 5%
—
Gay or lesbian relations
🔵 Dems: 81%
🔴 Reps: 35% (was 56% in 2022)
—
Doctor-assisted suicide
🔵 Dems: 68%
🔴… https://t.co/MqeMxiKzsS pic.twitter.com/8j79LPqeKU— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) June 9, 2026
Gallup’s bottom line is that, while most people on both sides of the political aisle are more accepting of all the behaviors on the list than they were 25 years ago, the growth towards acceptance seems to have plateaued or reversed over the last couple of years.
Could it be that people are no longer blindly accepting progressive ideology as the norm? It’s certainly possible. While Gallup doesn’t offer any potential reasons for this change, I tried to come up with some myself. Here’s what I have:
1. The 2024 election of Donald Trump: Some have called the margins by which he won a subtle conservative correction after decades of liberalizing norms.
2. Concerns about the decline of the family unit: From hook-up culture to the negative outcomes single parents often face, these could account for the decline in seeing teenage sex and having babies out of wedlock as acceptable.
3. Population concerns: Plunging birthrates could account for the fact that less people now see birth control as morally acceptable.
4. Religious resurgence: More young people are attending church and adopting traditional values.
5. Social backlash: This one is especially true for gambling. We’re seeing unprecedented growth in sports betting and gambling addiction in recent years.
6. Media fatigue: Whether it’s “Pride Month” or drag queen story hour or some guy yelling at someone else for not calling him she/her, people are getting tired of having this stuff pushed down their throats. I feel like every time I sign on to social media or tun on the TV or pick up my phone, these types of values are thrown in my face.
7. Pandemic: For many of us, the pandemic led to a reexamination of our priorities. We found that family, friends, and other loved ones were far more important than material possessions. We found that maintaining traditional values often kept us more secure. We learned what can happen when we lose control over our own lives.
Maybe there is hope for us yet.
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