Message #58023

[Mark]

Poll: Record support for polygamy, suicide, human cloning


Americans are increasingly taking their laissez-faire attitude outside of the marketplace and into the moral arena.

A new Gallup poll released Monday found the numbers of Americans that believe cloning humans, polygamy, having extramarital affairs, and suicide are “morally acceptable” are reaching record highs.

Nineteen percent of respondents said that suicide is “morally acceptable,” tied for the highest percentage since Gallup began asking in 2001. Likewise, 16 percent of respondents said the same of polygamy and 15 percent of cloning humans, both record highs since the survey.

Though at one point in 2002, 9 percent of those surveyed said extramarital affairs are “morally acceptable,” the number stayed at 7 percent or lower up until this most recent survey. Now, 8 percent of Americans say extramarital affairs are OK from a moral standpoint — the most minor increase of any of the behaviors surveyed.

Millennials were found to be the most tolerant of the aforementioned behaviors. Only extramarital affairs polled at less than 20 percent among the age group.

On certain matters, baby boomers aged 50 to 64 were the least permissive, though more boomers found suicide morally acceptable than respondents from generation X.

Only 18 percent of seniors ages 65 and older said that pornography and sex between teenagers are morally acceptable and less than 10 percent of them said polygamy, cloning humans and extramarital affairs are as well.

The survey concluded that “there is evidence of changing moral judgments, at least in relation to suicide, cloning humans and polygamy” among the American public.

Gallup polled 1,024 adults from May 6-10, half via cellphones and half via landlines. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/poll-polygamy-suicide-human-cloning-support-118485.html#ixzz3c6atVN5V