A drift from decency?

To what extent do poll results reflect what people actually believe? From "What Do Americans Think When No One Is Watching?":

On Monday, The Free Press launched The Honesty Project, a series of surveys we’re conducting through November to understand what our fellow Americans truly believe—and the size of the gap between those true beliefs and their publicly stated views. To pull it off, we’ve partnered with Populace, a leading, Boston-based think tank. The key to our surveys is a system that asks sensitive questions, along with a group of less controversial ones, letting respondents signal their answers without stating them directly. (You can read more about the full methodology here (pdf).)

Not surprisingly, we find a massive gap between what people say publicly and what they believe privately. In public, for example, 28 percent of Generation Z believe that we “may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” In private, that number rises to 39 percent. It’s only away from prying eyes that many young Americans reveal how far they’ve drifted from decency. ....

[T]his support for political violence wasn’t the only finding to cast doubt on our shared faith in American democracy, and in one another. Our poll also found that 62 percent of Americans privately believe the greatest threat to our nation comes from their own countrymen. That number rises to 86 percent among liberals, and 74 percent among Democrats and independents.

Meanwhile, we find that Republicans who question the integrity of elections may not be doing so sincerely. In public, only 40 percent of Republicans and 37 percent of conservatives agree that U.S. elections are free and fair. Yet in private, the share rises to 61 percent among Republicans and 57 percent for conservatives.

The brightest spot in our results regards the question of patriotism. Seventy-one percent of Americans say they are proud of their country in public. Best of all, the share of people expressing national pride rises in private among nearly every group. .... (more)

And, also from The Free Press, including the results of the first survey:

Political correctness, party loyalty, and other factors drive many respondents to hide their true feelings. About two-thirds of Americans believe that most people lie in political surveys, according to one 2020 poll.

As a result, politicians and the media constantly misread the actual views of the public. Shallow spasms of groupthink are mistaken for deep shifts in the popular will. And real, slow-moving changes in American values are often missed entirely.... (more, scroll down for the survey results).

The Editors, "What Do Americans Think When No One Is Watching?," The Free Press, June 21, 2026.