Loading…
Whether people get ahead by their own hard work, lucky breaks or help from others, or both equally (GSS).
Latest: 23% answered “Both equally” in GSS, 2024.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → mixed mode (2022).
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each column is one survey wave, evenly spaced rather than to scale in time; hover for exact shares.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → mixed mode (2022).
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each point is one survey wave at the middle of its field period. Lines from different surveys are never spliced together.
Groups differ from everyone by 4 points on average across all answers.
| Line | Question | Match | How answers map |
|---|---|---|---|
| GSS | Hard work versus luck in getting ahead Some people say that people get ahead by their own hard work; others say that lucky breaks or help from other people are more important. Which do you think is most important? | identical | Hard work most important → Hard work; Hard work, luck equally important → Both equally; Luck most important → Luck or help |
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → mixed mode (2022).
Groups differ from everyone by 4 points on average across all answers.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → mixed mode (2022).
Subgroup charts are picked automatically. Of every breakdown in the data (party, ideology, age, sex, race, education, income, region, religion, and community type), these two put their groups furthest from everyone’s answers: the gap is averaged across all answer categories and waves, with each group weighted by its share of respondents. Party and ideology count as one choice, so the second chart shows a different kind of split. Groups with an effective sample under 50 in a wave are left out of that wave.