Birth Control, Divorce Top List of Morally Acceptable Issues

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Birth control, divorce, sex between unmarried men and women, and gambling top a list of morally acceptable issues, while Americans deem polygamy, cloning humans and extramarital affairs as the least acceptable.

	2016
	%
Highly acceptable
Birth control	89
Largely acceptable
Divorce	72
Sex between an unmarried man and woman	67
Gambling	67
Having a baby outside of marriage	62
Medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos	60
Gay or lesbian relations	60
The death penalty	59
Buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur	59
Contentious
Medical testing on animals	53
Doctor-assisted suicide	53
Abortion	43
Largely unacceptable
Sex between teenagers	37
Pornography	34
Cloning animals	34
Highly unacceptable
Suicide	18
Polygamy	14
Cloning humans	13
Married men and women having an affair	10
Gallup, May 4-8, 2016

 

For the past 15 years, Gallup has asked Americans to rate the moral acceptability of different issues. Of the 19 issues included in this year's survey, a majority of Americans view 11 as morally acceptable. Americans' willingness to describe many issues as morally acceptable has grown since 2001, namely for gay or lesbian relations, having a baby outside of marriage and sex between unmarried people. On other issues, including abortion, cloning animals and wearing clothing made of animal fur, there has been little to no change in the past 15 years. On a year-to-year basis, Americans' views of the moral acceptability of any of these issues have not changed much since 2015.

Birth control is the issue that the largest percentage of Americans approve of, with 89% deeming it morally acceptable. Eight others -- ranging from divorce to medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos -- fall into the "largely acceptable" category, with solid majorities rating them as morally OK. Americans are split on three issues in the "contentious" category: medical testing on animals, doctor-assisted suicide and abortion.

At least half of Americans consider seven issues on the list "morally wrong." In the "largely unacceptable" category, sex between teenagers, pornography and cloning animals are deemed wrong by at least 56%, with roughly a third calling these acceptable. In the "highly unacceptable" category are suicide (18% morally acceptable vs. 73% morally unacceptable), polygamy (14% vs. 82%) and cloning humans (13% vs. 81%). Extramarital affairs rank as the least morally acceptable activity on this list, with 10% saying they are acceptable versus 88% saying they are not.

Republicans, Democrats Split on Moral Acceptability

There are some key differences in how partisans view these moral issues. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to deem sex between an unmarried man and woman as acceptable, along with having a baby outside of marriage and abortion. Republicans, on the other hand, are more likely than Democrats to believe the death penalty is acceptable, as well as to support buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur and medical testing on animals.

	Republicans	Independents	Democrats
Birth control	87	87	94
Divorce	67	68	83
Sex between an unmarried man and woman	54	70	78
Gambling	63	66	74
Having a baby outside of marriage	49	64	73
Medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos	44	63	73
Gay or lesbian relations	44	62	75
The death penalty	74	56	47
Buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur	71	59	45
Doctor-assisted suicide	44	53	64
Medical testing on animals	64	52	43
Abortion	24	44	62
Sex between teenagers	25	36	52
Pornography	22	36	46
Cloning animals	31	33	39
Suicide	9	20	25
Polygamy	10	16	18
Cloning humans	10	13	17
Married men and women having an affair	8	12	9
Gallup, May 4-8, 2016

 

Bottom Line

Americans broadly agree on the moral acceptability of several prominent social issues. Most consider birth control and divorce as OK, while the vast majority disapprove of polygamy, cloning humans and extramarital affairs. Although polygamy and cloning humans have seen increases in acceptability in recent years, more than 80% of the public still oppose them.

Gay or lesbian relations, having a baby out of wedlock and sex between unmarried men and women have seen substantial increases in public acceptance since Gallup began asking about them, but issues such as the death penalty and medical testing on animals have seen declining acceptance. In general, in the 21^st century, Americans believe more key issues are morally acceptable than they used to, consistent with other trends toward greater social liberalism.

Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics.

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted May 4-8, 2016, on the Gallup U.S. Daily survey, with a random sample of 1,025 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

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