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Self-rated general interest in politics, asked by the GSS with a five-point scale (polint), a four-point scale (polint1), and a four-point variant that adds 'national affairs' in 1987 (intpol); the scales differ, so compare the share very interested rather than full distributions.
AI-matched An AI model grouped these questions and mapped their answers onto shared categories, and a second AI review checked and corrected the grouping and mapping. No person has checked it: compare the question wordings and the answer mapping below before reading the lines against each other.
Latest: 16% answered “Not at all interested” in GSS: Personal interest in politics, 2024.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS: Personal interest in politics → mixed mode (2024).
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: Personal interest in politics → mixed mode (2024).
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 9 points on average across all answers, in GSS: Personal interest in politics.
| Line | Question | Match | How answers map |
|---|---|---|---|
| GSS: Interest in politics and national affairs | Interest in politics and national affairs How interested are you in politics and national affairs? Are you very interested, somewhat interested, only slightly interested, or not at all interested? Caveat: Adds 'national affairs' and different labels (somewhat/slightly); compare only the share very interested | similar | Very interested → Very interested; Somewhat int → Fairly/somewhat interested; Slightly int → Slightly/not very interested; Not interested → Not at all interested |
| GSS: Personal interest in politics | Personal interest in politics How interested would you say you personally are in politics? Caveat: Five-point scale; fairly and somewhat merged, so middle categories are approximate | identical | Very interested → Very interested; Fairly interested → Fairly/somewhat interested; Somewhat interested → Fairly/somewhat interested; Not very interested → Slightly/not very interested; Not at all interested → Not at all interested |
| GSS: Personal interest in politics, four-point scale | Personal interest in politics, four-point scale How interested would you say you personally are in politics? Caveat: Four-point scale without a 'somewhat' step; middle categories differ from polint | equivalent | Very interested → Very interested; Fairly interested → Fairly/somewhat interested; Not very interested → Slightly/not very interested; Not at all interested → Not at all interested |
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS: Personal interest in politics → mixed mode (2024).
Groups differ from everyone by 8 points on average across all answers, in GSS: Personal interest in politics.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS: Personal interest in politics → mixed mode (2024).
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.