From the American Bar Association:
A massive 85% of U.S. residents believe civility is worse compared to 10 years ago, and a majority believe social media and media are to blame, according to the fifth annual American Bar Association Survey of Civic Literacy. Nearly a third (29%) said social media was responsible for the downward spiral, followed by media (24%). Almost 1 in 5 (19%) said public officials. When asked who should be responsible for improving civility, more than a third of respondents said the task starts with family and friends (34%) and more than a quarter (27%) said public officials. The ABA 2023 Survey of Civic Literacy is being released April 27 to mark Law Day, which is observed on May 1. The results are from a nationally representative survey of 1,000 respondents conducted in English and Spanish by live telephone March 17-22, 2023. The survey was administered by DAPA Research on behalf of the American Bar Association. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. The survey showed that even in these divisive times, most of the U.S. public believe there is room for compromise among elected officials. Although there has been heated debate in local, state and federal governments over various issues in recent years, more than 3 in 4 survey participants (79%) widely supported compromise. By comparison, just 13% said they want leaders to hold their ground until they win. A majority of respondents also supported working toward agreement on hot-button issues. Respondents were most supportive of compromise by elected officials on infrastructure (75%) and immigration reform (70%, with no significant difference among racial and ethnic groups)