When it comes to morality, there’s one thing almost all Americans think is wrong, Pew poll finds

A new survey examining Americans’ moral qualms with a number of issues found one matter that nearly everyone could agree on: don’t cheat on your spouse. 

Nine in ten people questioned in a Pew Research poll said married people having an affair was morally wrong. That’s compared to the two percent that found it morally acceptable, while five percent did not think it was a moral issue.

Big picture view:

Pew researchers noted that respondents overall took a morally permissive view of the issues included in the poll. Watching pornography was only one other instance that a majority described as morally wrong.

That split, however, was much tighter. In fact, the gap between those who found it morally wrong versus it being morally acceptable or not a moral issue at all (52%-47%) was the narrowest of the fifteen questions.

The only other issue where the separation between the two sides was less than twenty points was on the question of abortion. Like pornography, the difference was five points, but in this case, the results were flipped, with 52% finding abortion morally acceptable or not a moral issue and 47% of them calling the procedure unacceptable.

Dig deeper:

When deciding which issues to include in their survey, researchers ignored ones that they felt were universally considered morally right or wrong, citing asking for directions or picking up litter as examples of the former and murder or stealing for the latter.

Even after limiting their list to 15 more controversial issues, there were only two questions where the difference between what was considered acceptable and what was not was less than 20 percentage points.

Do as I say, not as I do

While an overwhelming percentage of Americans who find infidelity morally unconscionable, their actions do not necessarily match their words. 

A separate survey conducted by YouGov in 2022 found 13% of adults who are married admitted to cheating on their spouse either physically or emotionally. That percentage is six times higher than Pew’s number for those who consider infidelity to be morally acceptable.

The result was part of the pollster’s greater look at how often people in any type of monogamous relationship are unfaithful, including those who are married, living together, or in casual relationships. 

Differences of opinion

Abortion and pornography were two of the top three issues where men and women were most likely to have differing opinions. While fewer than half of men had moral qualms with viewing explicit material (47%), nearly six in women (58%) said it was wrong, creating an eleven-point gap between them.

When it came to having an abortion, a slight majority of men (51%) stated it was morally wrong. That number dropped to 44% when the question was asked of women.

The only other gap between the two groups that was large was whether it was okay to get a divorce. Over a quarter of men (28%) said it was morally unacceptable versus fewer than one in five women (19%).

Pew researchers noted, however, that there were only a few issues overall where women and men’s opinions notably differed.

The generation gap

In a tale as old as time, major gaps were exposed once researchers started breaking down their numbers by age. 

By far, the Gen Z respondents were far more likely to take a dim view of being extremely rich, which Pew described as having billions of dollars. One-third of adults between 18 and 29 considered that much wealth morally wrong.

That number dropped to 20% among the mostly Millennial age 20-49 cohort, and fell even further to 11% and 10% among those between the ages of 50-65 and 65 or over, respectively.

Those younger adults were also twice as likely to take issue with spanking children. Thirty-five percent disagree with the practice, doubling the percentage of the two groups over 50 years old.

At the other end of the spectrum, they are more accepting of homosexuality. The Pew study reported 30% of respondents under 30 considered same-sex relationships as morally unacceptable, a number that climbed to 46% among seniors.

The biggest issue where Gen Z showed themselves to be more permissive was when it came to viewing pornography. Less than half consider consuming such material as unacceptable, whereas two-thirds of people over 65 years old feel the same way.