Americans' morals hit a puritanical streak

Fewer Americans say birth control, having a baby outside of marriage and gambling are morally OK this year compared to last, according to a new poll.

Why it matters: Americans' more puritanical view of personal liberty coincides with a Republican resurgence, young men's rebounding religiosity and conservative backlash to LGBTQ+ advancements.

Driving the news: While majorities still believe birth control, having a baby outside of marriage and gambling are morally acceptable, the share who say so has fallen significantly since last year.

• The share of Americans who say birth control is morally acceptable hit a new low in Gallup's trend that spans back to 2012. Today, that share is 83%, down from 90% last year.
• While a smaller share thought having a baby outside of marriage was morally acceptable in the 2000s and early 2010s, that group grew to 70% in 2022 and 2023. Now, it has slipped back to 58%.

What they're saying: The big shifts in sentiment on issues like birth control and having a baby outside of marriage were largely driven by independents, says Megan Brenan, a senior editor at Gallup.

• The numbers could reflect a pendulum swinging away from more liberal ideals toward moderation, she says. Or, "maybe it is a real beginning of something."

Zoom out: Americans' belief that gambling is morally acceptable also hit a new low.

• It comes as prediction markets have become a popular — and controversial — way to bet on news, sports, business, politics and more.
• Americans view prediction market trading more like gambling than investing, according to poll from Ipsos and the American Institute for Boys and Men released earlier this year.

The big picture: Across the range of behaviors and practices Gallup polled respondents on, a majority found eight to be morally wrong: sex between teenagers, extramarital affairs, cloning humans, polygamy, suicide, cloning animals, pornography and changing one's gender.

• The declining share who say that changing one's gender is morally acceptable coincides with slipping support for the validity of same-sex marriage and the morality of gay and lesbian relationships.

Between the lines: Some of the questions demonstrated a stark partisan gap.

• For example, Democrats were far more likely than Republicans to find abortion and changing one's gender morally acceptable, while Republicans are considerably more likely to back the death penalty, buying and wearing clothes made of animal fur and medical testing on animals.
• Other issues, including cloning animals and humans, got bipartisan poor marks.

Methodology: Results are based on telephone interviews conducted May 1-17 with a random sample of –1,001—adults, ages 18+, living in all 50 U.S. states and D.C. For results based on this sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Go deeper: "Everything is gambling now": How betting is taking over America