Loading…
Whether people mostly try to be helpful or are mostly just looking out for themselves (GSS).
Latest: 45% answered “Look out for themselves” in GSS, 2024.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → mixed mode (2022).
Shares of everyone asked, including non-answers. 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 everyone asked, including non-answers. 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 6 points on average across all answers.
| Line | Question | Match | How answers map |
|---|---|---|---|
| GSS | People helpful or looking out for themselves Would you say that most of the time people try to be helpful, or that they are mostly just looking out for themselves? | identical | Try to be helpful → Try to be helpful; Looking out for themselves → Look out for themselves |
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → mixed mode (2022).
Groups differ from everyone by 6 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.