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Partisanship has gotten so intense in the U.S. that people increasingly view voters from the opposite party as dishonest, immoral and closed-minded, according to a new Pew Research survey.
The survey, released Tuesday, showed that the negative views Democrats hold of Republicans and vice versa have been exacerbated over the past six years.
For example, the percentage of Democrats who believe Republicans are immoral compared to other Americans went from 35% in 2016 to 63% in 2022.
Meanwhile, the percentage of Republicans who think that about Democrats went from 47% in 2016 to 72% in 2022.
Republicans also largely view Democrats as dishonest — jumping from 45% thinking that way in 2016 to 72% thinking that now.
Democrats said they feel similarly about Republicans being dishonest, with 42% believing that in 2016 to 64% feeling that way in 2022.
There hasn’t been as much change when it comes to Democrats and Republicans viewing their political opposites as closed-minded though both groups of voters were already more likely to think that.
In 2016, 70% of Democrats thought that Republicans were closed-minded; that has grown to 83% in 2022. Six years ago, 52% of Republicans believed that Democrats were closed-minded versus 69% today.
With all this negativity, it may not come as a surprise that the share of Americans who view both parties unfavorably is its highest in decades at 27%.
This supports another finding in the poll — 39% of the public strongly agreed with the statement “I often wish there were more political parties to choose from in this country.” That was higher than those who somewhat agreed with the statement (32%) and those who didn’t agree with it at all (28%).
Americans have a slightly more favorable view of Democrats (41%) than Republicans (37%). They also believe that Democrats (57%) are “respectful and tolerant of different types of people” compared to Republicans (38%).
The survey was conducted among 6,174 Americans between June 27 and July 4.
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