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The McCourtney Institute for Democracy

Mood of the Nation Poll

Mood of the Nation Poll

Our Mood of the Nation poll offers a unique approach to public opinion polling. It allows Americans to speak in their own words through open-ended questions that focus on emotions like anger and hope, as well as commitment to constitutional principles.

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

January 4, 2023

The McCourtney Institute for Democracy’s most recent Mood of the Nation Poll, conducted November 14-18, 2022, finds that a much higher proportion of Democrats than Republicans say that they trust the Federal Bureau of Investigation and that they believe FBI agents are fair.

In addition, the survey finds that a higher proportion of younger Americans believe that the FBI is biased against groups on the left, whereas larger proportions of older generations distrust the FBI due to a perceived bias against former President Trump.

July 1, 2022

“That both liberals and conservatives feel that fundamental rights are at risk illustrates the zero-sum nature of today’s politics. The belief that their rights will erode is bound to animate politics in the coming years”
– Poll Director Eric Plutzer

June 22, 2022

The U.S. Supreme Court is likely to overturn its landmark Roe v. Wade decision according to a leaked draft opinion first obtained by Politico. At this historic moment it is worth taking a look at Americans’ opinions on abortion, and how those opinions follow demographic, socio-economic and political lines.