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Which of four national goals respondents pick as the first priority, asked in ANES (1972-1992) and in the GSS (1993-2021) with the same four options.
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: 32% answered “Maintain order” in GSS, 2021.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → web (2021).
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 → web (2021).
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 8 points on average across all answers, in ANES.
| Line | Question | Match | How answers map |
|---|---|---|---|
| ANES | Most desirable national goal, first choice For a nation, it is not always possible to obtain everything one might wish. On this page (1988,1992: on page [PAGE] of the booklet) (1972, 1976: on this card), several different goals are listed. If you had to choose among them, which one would seem most desirable to you? (RESPONDENT BOOKLET OR SHOW CARD SHOWN TO R) Caveat: Reference question; interview with show card, 1972-1992 | identical | Maintaining order in the nation → Maintain order; Giving the people more say in important political decisions → Give people more say; Fighting rising prices → Fight rising prices; Protecting freedom of speech → Protect free speech |
| GSS | Highest priority for America A. Looking at the list below, please check a box next to the one thing you think should be America's highest priority, the most important thing it should do. America should… Caveat: Same four options; self-completed checkbox format and slightly different wording, 1993-2021 | equivalent | Maintain order in the nation → Maintain order; Give people more say in government decisions → Give people more say; Fight rising prices → Fight rising prices; Protect freedom of speech → Protect free speech |
Groups differ from everyone by 6 points on average across all answers, in ANES.
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.