Loading…
Respondent's own position on a seven-point scale between government effort to improve the position of Blacks and minorities and minorities helping themselves; the 1980 GSS item has an added 'haven't thought much' option.
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: 34% answered “Minorities should help themselves” in ANES, 2024.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. ANES → mixed mode (2012).
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. ANES → mixed mode (2012).
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 10 points on average across all answers, in ANES.
| Line | Question | Match | How answers map |
|---|---|---|---|
| ANES | Government aid to blacks and minorities scale 1970-1984,1986 FORM B, 1988 FORM B:
Some people feel that the government in Washington should make every possible effort to improve the social and economic position of blacks (1970: Negroes) and other minority groups (1980: even if it means giving them preferential treatment). Others feel that the government should not make any special effort to help minorities because they should help themselves (1970: but they should be expected to help themselves).
1986 FORM A, 1988 FORM A, 1990 AND LATER:
Some people feel that the government in Washington should make every (prior to 1996 only: possible) effort to improve the social and economic position of blacks. (1996-LATER: Suppose these people are at one end of a scale, at point 1). Others feel that the government should not make any special effort to help blacks because they should help themselves. (1996-LATER: Suppose these people are at the other end, at point 7. And, of course, some other people have opinions somewhere in between, at points 2,3,4,5 or 6).
ALL YEARS: Where would you place yourself on this scale, or haven’t you thought much about it? (7-POINT SCALE SHOWN TO R) Caveat: Wording varies slightly across years and forms (e.g., 'Negroes' in 1970, preferential treatment added in 1980). | identical | Government should help minority groups/blacks → Government should help; 2 → Government should help; 3 → Government should help; 4 → Middle; 5 → Minorities should help themselves; 6 → Minorities should help themselves; Minority groups/ blacks should help themselves → Minorities should help themselves |
| GSS | Own position on government help for minorities Some people feel that the government in Washington should make every possible effort to improve the social and economic position of blacks and other minority groups, even if it means giving them preferential treatment.
(Suppose these people are at one end of the scale at point number 1.) Others feel that the government should not make any special effort to help minorities because they should help themselves. (Suppose these people are at the other end, at point 7. And of course, some other people have opinions somewhere in between at points (2, 3, 4, 5, or 6.) ENTER CODE IN BOXES.
A. Where would you place yourself on this scale, or haven't you thought much about this? Caveat: Includes explicit 'preferential treatment' wording and a 'haven't thought much' option, which is not mapped. |
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. ANES → mixed mode (2012).
Groups differ from everyone by 9 points on average across all answers, in ANES.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. ANES → mixed mode (2012).
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.
| equivalent |
| Govt help → Government should help; 2 → Government should help; 3 → Government should help; 4 → Middle; 5 → Minorities should help themselves; 6 → Minorities should help themselves; Help selves → Minorities should help themselves |