Ethics Newsline®

Poll: “‘Moral Values’ Mean Very Different Things to the Public and to Pundits”

Jan 14th, 2008 • Posted in: Research Report

Poll finds public judging political candidates by their perceived character, not their position on controversial issues

From Harris Interactive:

“Political commentators and journalists often use the phrase ‘moral values’ to mean the issues of importance to some conservatives and members of the ‘Christian Right,’ issues such as abortion, gay rights, same-sex marriage and stem cell research. In fact, when the public uses the phrase, only a few people are referring to these issues. Most people who say that moral values are very important to them in deciding how to vote (46% of all adults) say that what they mean are the characters of the candidates — such as honesty, integrity, trustworthiness and their likelihood of ‘doing the right thing’.

“Using the phrase as the public understands it, moral values are important to most people (85%) when deciding whom to vote for, and are ‘very important’ to fully 46 percent of the public.

“Republicans (63%) are much more likely than Democrats (37%) or Independents (38%) to believe that moral values are very important in their choice of candidates — a finding that is consistent with the common assumption that ‘values voters’ tend to be an important part of the Republican base. Unsurprisingly, Conservatives (64%) are also more likely than Moderates (41%) or Liberals (33%) to believe moral values are very important criteria for their voting decisions….

“Of all the people who say moral values are very important in deciding how to vote, less than a third (30%) are referring to the candidates’ positions on issues, with by far the largest number (14%) referring to abortion. In addition, they mention gay rights (3%), that marriage is between a man and woman (3%) and gay marriage (3%). A few, but only a very few, mention homosexuality (1%), and stem cell research (1%).

“The greatest majority (78%) of these voters mentions personal characteristics of the candidates including their honesty (28%), integrity (11%), ethical values (8%), and someone who does the right thing (8%), is trustworthy (7%), truthful (6%) or keeps his/her word (6%).

“However it is not quite as clear cut as these numbers. Some, but not many, of these ‘moral values voters’ mention personal characteristics associated with the Christian Right such as ‘Christian/or believes in the Bible’ (6%), their religious views (5%), belief in God or Christ (4%), or the 10 Commandments (2%). Overall, however, it is very clear that when most people talk about the importance of moral values they are not referring to the agenda of the Christian Right….

“These findings show that pollsters, journalists and commentators must be very careful not to assume that voters who feel strongly about ‘moral values’ are primarily concerned with issues such as abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage, stem cell research, gun control or any of the other issues often associated with the Christian Right or the Conservative base of the Republican party….

“In 2004 many commentators assumed wrongly that voters who said moral values influenced their votes were referring to these issues, and as a result some pundits greatly overestimated their impact on the election….”