Traditional polling forces citizens to place themselves into set categories, even on issues in which they are uninformed and uninterested.
The Mood of the Nation poll gives citizens a series of open-ended questions, allowing them to answer in their own words—saying what is on their minds, what is important to them, and thereby providing a unique window on contemporary American politics.
Read more about how the poll was conducted and the team that makes it happen.
Latest Poll Reports
Two-thirds of American adults indicate that they experienced at least one of five major weather events in 2023, according to the McCourtney Institute for Democracy’s latest Mood of the Nation Poll, conducted with 1,000 American adults from January 11 to 17, 2024.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that 2023 was the fifth hottest in U.S. history and the country saw a record 28 separate billion-dollar weather disasters. It turns out these conditions were not at all lost on the American people.
While trust in the federal government is generally low among the American people, apparently this is not the case when it comes to providing remedies for water shortages and flooding.
The latest Mood of the Nation Poll finds that a majority of Americans support government involvement both in determining water allocations to areas short on water supply and in providing insurance to homeowners in flood-prone areas. This stands in contrast to an earlier Mood of the Nation Poll finding that less than 30% trust the “government in Washington to do what is right” either “just about always” or “most of the time.”
Our Mood of the Nation Poll finds that nearly all American adults think that the history of slavery should be taught in schools—but only half think that the on-going effects of that history should be part of the curriculum.