Science, Emotion, and Identity: Where Party Affiliation Matters to Young Americans
Finding Agreement Across the Political-Ideological Spectrum
Did you miss Part Three? Check it out.
Despite the charged political rhetoric of the recent election cycle, young people from across the political-ideological spectrum continue to find agreement on a wide range of issues.
For instance, a large majority of young people (70%), including more than half across every political group, agree that climate change is real and the result of human activity. This agreement persisted despite the re-litigation of climate science on the campaign trail and the corresponding coverage of the so-called scientific debate in the media.
Nearly half of conservative young people agree that America should offer immigrants a path to citizenship.
Similar agreement is forming around immigration policy, where 65% of young people agree that undocumented immigrants should be offered a path to citizenship, including nearly 1 in 2 (49%) young conservatives. There is a new type of conservative, and youth are redefining the core values of what this means.
On issues of national security, political differences translate into differing world views. While nearly 2 in 3 young people (65%) view terrorism as a major threat to the US, for young conservatives, this climbs to 4 in 5 (80%), but for young liberals this rests at 1 in 2 (51%). This 29 point split between young liberals and young conservatives suggests that terrorism, or rather the perception of the threat, is a political question for many young people.
Young people’s views of Islam see similar ideological dissonance. Young conservatives are twice as likely (48% vs 19%) to see Islam in conflict with American values than young liberals. On the direct issue of accepting refugees from Syria, 76% of young liberals agree the U.S. should accept Syrian refugees, while only 41% of young moderates and 35% of young conservatives do so.
Confusingly, young people are more opposed to Trump’s travel ban — 62% overall disapprove — than they are accepting of Syrian refugees: 50% overall agree. The more extreme reaction to the travel ban, a question in our survey that included Trump by name, than to the specific issue of Syrian refugees, a question that made no mention of Trump, suggests that broad disapproval of Trump is translating into outsized disagreement with any policy naming or explicitly associating with him.
Broad disapproval of Trump is translating into outsized disagreement with any policy naming or explicitly associating with him.
On issues of identity and gender, young liberals consistently stand apart from the majority of young people. Despite notable increases in feminist support between 2016 and 2017 (+14 increase in net agreement) highlighted in Part Three, young liberals remain the only group to majority (69%) identify with the stance. Under 1 in 3 young moderates and conservative consider themselves feminists.
Results from the 2016 Survey of Young People and Civic Participation found similar divides across issues of identity not asked about in this March 2017 study. For instance, on issues of gender fluidity and support for Black Lives Matter young people were similarly split evenly in their agreement/disagreement, with support from young Democrats outpacing that of young Independents and Republicans.
How a young person identifies ideologically correlates with how they viewed the Women’s Marches.
More immediately, how a young person identifies politically correlates with how they viewed the Women’s Marches in Washington D.C. and cities around the world. Over 4 in 5 young liberals supported the marches. For young moderates and young conservatives, just 1 in 3 feel the same. Overall, only half of young people support the Women’s Marches.
Research & Editorial Team
Jeff Bladt, Chief Data Officer, DoSomething.org
Nick McCormick, Data and Survey Research Analyst, DoSomething.org
Keri Goff, Creative Director, DoSomething.org
Meredith Ferguson, Managing Director, TMI Strategy
2017 Polling Methodology:
The survey was distributed to individuals ages 13–25 across the United States and its outlying territories. The final sample includes 581 observations. Results presented here are reported post-weighting, meaning that the opinions and actions of 13-year-old females are just as well represented as those of 25-year-old males. Assuming a population size of approximately 45,000,000 13–25 year olds nationwide, a sample size of 581 at a 95% confidence level allows for a 4.07% margin of error.
2016 Polling Methodology:
The survey was distributed to individuals ages 13–25 across the United States and its outlying territories. Prior to analysis, the data was cleaned and weighted as follows:
• Individuals with completion times of under 5 minutes were excluded from the results.
• Individuals younger than 13 years of age or older than 25 years of age were excluded from the results.
• Weights were applied to create equal representations across gender and age.
The final sample includes 3,305 observations. Results presented here are reported post-weighting, meaning that the opinions and actions of 13-year-old females are just as well represented as those of 25-year-old males. Assuming a population size of approximately 45,000,000 13–25 year olds nationwide, a sample size of 3,305 at a 95% confidence level allows for a 1.7% margin of error.
About DoSomething.org
DoSomething.org is the largest tech company exclusively for young people and social change. We’re activating 5.5 million young people (and counting!) to make positive change, online and off, in every US area code and in over 131 countries. When you join DoSomething, you join something bigger than yourself. You team up with the young people who have clothed half of America’s youth in homeless shelters. And cleaned up 3.7 million cigarette butts from the streets. And run the largest youth-led sports equipment drive in the world. And more! You’ve got the power and the passion to make an impact — we’ll help you get it done. Welcome to DoSomething. Let’s Do This.
About TMI Strategy
TMI is a strategy consultancy that uncovers insights about young people to develop creative solutions that drive social change. Fueled by DoSomething.org’s proprietary data from millions of young people involved in hundreds of cause initiatives, we uncover what motivates young people to connect with companies and causes they care about. Not your typical agency, every project TMI takes on has positive impact on people, the planet, or both — and 100% of TMI’s profits support DoSomething.org. For more information, visit tmistrategy.org.
