According to a new Pew survey spanning 25 countries, Americans are the most critical of their fellow citizens. Fully 53% of US adults say the morality and ethics of Americans are “somewhat or very bad.†That’s +25 percentage points above the cross-country median (28%). What’s more, the US is the only country where a majority believes their fellow countrymen are more bad than good.
This is the first year Pew has asked this question, so there’s no historical data to show whether Americans are becoming more judgmental over time. But other data suggest partisan views of morality have hardened in recent years.

Between 2016 and 2022, the share of Republicans who say Democrats are immoral rose +25 points, to 72%. And the share of Democrats who say Republicans are immoral climbed +28 points, to 63%. Similar increases occurred in how each party demonizes the other: closed-minded, dishonest, unintelligent, and lazy.

Source: Demography Unplugged