New poll shows more than half of Americans feel that the general public is “too sensitive” when it comes to speech.
QUICK FACTS:
- The recent survey conducted by pollster Ipsos Mori on behalf of King’s College London.
- The survey “asked 23,000 adults in 28 countries about their attitudes towards free speech,” according to The Economist.
- Respondents rated—on a scale from zero to seven—”how they felt about using potentially hurtful words when speaking with people from different backgrounds to their own.”
- Zero meant that respondents felt that “people are too easily offended.”
- A seven meant they thought it was necessary to “change the way people talk.”
- “More than half of respondents in America, Australia, Britain and Sweden rated themselves between zero and three (excluding those who answered ‘don’t know’),” explains The Economist, “meaning they were the most likely to feel that the general public are too sensitive when it comes to speech.”
- “At the other end of the scale, Chinese, Indians and Turks were the least likely to say people were being too sensitive—fewer than one-fifth of the people from these countries responded with a scale of zero to three—instead believing it was necessary to modify their language.”
AMERICANS THINK ‘CULTURE WARS’ ARE DIVISIVE:
- Survey respondents were also asked whether or not they agreed that “culture wars” were dividing their countries, notes The Economist.
- “Americans and Indians were among the most likely to say that they were, with about three-fifths agreeing.”
- “By contrast, fewer than one-tenth of Japanese and one-fifth of Russians and Germans thought that culture wars were divisive.”
