BY CORA LEWIS Published 1:31 PM EDT, October 4, 2022

NEW YORK (AP) — More than half of Americans believe it’s unlikely younger people today will have better lives than their parents, according to a new poll from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Most of those polled said that raising a family and owning a home are important to them, but more than half said these goals are harder to achieve compared with their parents’ generation. That was particularly true for younger people — about seven in 10 Americans under 30 think homeownership has become harder to achieve.

About half of those polled also said it’s hard for them to improve their own standards of living, with many citing both economic conditions and structural factors.

Josean Cano, 39, a bus operator in Chicago who is Hispanic, said he’s had a harder time economically than his parents. He mentioned inflation, high housing costs, and the recent baby formula shortage as examples.

“Things have doubled and tripled in price, ” he said. “We’re not talking about gym shoes or concert tickets. We’re talking about essentials. Six months ago, you couldn’t find PediaSure. And if you could find it, it would be $20. It used to be $11 at Target.”

Cano also pointed to the fact that the real purchasing power of the minimum wage was higher for previous generations and that rents and the cost of education were more reasonable.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, the federal minimum wage in 2021 was worth 34% less than in 1968, when its purchasing power peaked.

“Many people perceive their options are less than what they had in the past,” said University of Chicago professor Steven Durlauf, who studies inequality and helped construct the study. “A lot of sense of well-being has to do with relative status, not absolute status.”

The study also showed marked partisan disagreements over whether structural factors contribute to social mobility.

Democrats were more likely than Republicans to say that factors such as parents’ wealth, the community one lives in, college education, race and ethnicity, and gender greatly affect one’s social mobility. Black and Hispanic adults were also more likely than white adults to say a college education, race and ethnicity, and gender are very important factors.

Acacia Barraza, 35, who lives in Las Lunas, New Mexico and works as an employee services coordinator, said she was more optimistic about social mobility for Hispanic Americans before the election of former President Donald Trump. Barraza is Hispanic and Native American.

“Before, I would have thought we had made progress,” she said. “That we’d be able to have more and be more. But we’re battling the same battles our parents did. Trump brought it back to the forefront.”

Barraza said that student debt, which she and her husband both have, has made raising a family and working towards buying a house more difficult.

According to Department of Education data, average student loan debt has increased for all generations, reaching record highs. Of adults under 30 who have a bachelor’s degree or higher, 49% have student loan debt. Federal borrowers 24 and younger owe an average of $14,434, those aged 25 to 34 owe an average debt of $33,570, and those aged 35 to 49 owe an average federal debt of $43,208.

Mark Claffey, 52, who is disabled, white, and lives in Logan, Ohio, said that “everything costs more” now than it did for his parents’ generation.

“Back then you could make something on a limited budget,” he said. “You could do more with less. Bread cost less than a dollar.”

Now, Claffey says he and his wife find themselves squeezed at the end of the month on their fixed income budgets. He also thinks the country is more divided and polarized along partisan lines than in previous eras.

Compared with younger people, Americans aged 60 or older are more likely to believe it’s easier for them to achieve a good standard of living compared with their parents, the poll found.

Only 35% of adults over 60 said it is “much or somewhat harder” to achieve a good standard of living, compared with 54% of adults aged 18-29.

The poll also found that Black Americans have a more positive outlook on upward mobility for future generations than white Americans.

Poll respondent Glen McDaniel, 70, who is Black and works as a medical laboratory scientist in Atlanta, said he has “a certain amount of optimism” about the prospect of future generations having a better standard of living because he “knows for a fact it’s possible, not something you read in a book.”

“I’ve seen a lot of history through these eyes,” he said. “There were times when even someone looking like me going to college didn’t seem possible. We would have to think, going on vacation — would people who look like us be safe, or would we be harassed? It’s incredible to think that was during my lifetime.”

McDaniel said his mother started college, but dropped out, and that he went to the University of Toronto. He said seeing technological advances also contributes to his feeling that future generations may make gains.

McDaniel added that his optimism is “a little constrained by the political climate right now.”

“There’s still a climate of people coming out from under rocks motivated by their worst fears,” he said. “It’s not as blatant as when I was a kid. But it’s still part of the American ethos.”

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The poll of 1,014 adults was conducted Aug. 25-29 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

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Follow AP’s coverage of financial wellness at https://apnews.com/hub/financial-wellness

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The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER AND NUHA DOLBY Published 11:38 AM EDT, October 11, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of U.S. adults expect America’s relations with foreign adversaries like Russia and North Korea to grow more hostile, according to a new poll, a major shift in public opinion from four years ago under President Donald Trump.

Two years into the Biden administration, 60% of U.S. adults say relations with adversaries will get worse, up from 26% four years ago at the same point in the Trump administration, according to the poll from the Pearson Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Just 21% say relationships with allies will deteriorate, down from 46% then.

In general, 39% expect the country’s global standing to worsen, compared with 48% who said that in 2018. Crucially, the United States’ own sharply divided domestic politic s influences views of the country’s standing abroad.

“Those results really, clearly show that it’s hyperpartisanship” affecting how confidently or bleakly, respectively, Democrats and Republicans see the U.S. standing abroad, said Sheila Kohanteb, a political scientist and executive director of the Global Forum at the Chicago-based Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts.

In terms of the opinions that people in the U.S. are expressing on U.S. dealings abroad, the key factor is “political bloc sticking with political bloc,” Kohanteb said.

Four years ago, three-quarters of Democrats expected U.S. global standing to suffer. Now, roughly that same percentage see stability or improvement in the near future. By comparison, about 6 in 10 Republicans predicted improvements in 2018; now that same percentage expect the current administration to stumble.

Other countries are “probably laughing at us, waiting for us to fall apart,” said Kristy Woodard, a 30-year-old Republican in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She said she saw the economy and U.S. leadership as suffering under President Joe Biden.

“I don’t think we really have allies anymore because the United States is just a joke at this point,” Woodard said.

But David Dvorin, a 49-year-old Democrat in Pittsburgh who works as a price specialist, said Biden was winning respect abroad by rallying international allies to respond to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The war in Ukraine has shown the leadership of the Biden administration, to be able to hold most of Europe together,” Dvorin said.

Still, as Russia amps up its assault on Ukraine, tensions with China grow over Taiwan and other issues and the U.S. confronts North Korea and Iran over those countries’ nuclear programs, similar percentages of Republicans and Democrats say that relationships with adversaries will get worse in the next year.

The Pearson Institute/AP-NORC poll also shows strong support for a U.S. foreign policy that protects women and minorities around the world — even though few people think the U.S. is doing a world-beating job of protecting those same interests at home.

Majorities of U.S. adults said they see preventing discrimination against women and minorities around the world as an important U.S. foreign policy goal and that the U.S. government has significant responsibility for protecting the rights of those groups. And 78% of people in the United States believe the U.S. should withhold financial support from other countries that are failing to protect the rights of women and minority groups.

However, only about 1 in 5 U.S. adults thinks the country is leading the world in safeguarding the rights of women and racial, ethnic and religious minorities, or LGBTQ people. Many think the U.S. is among several countries that are doing it well, but about a third say there are other countries doing better.

Rick Reinesch, 61, of Austin, Texas, who works as a project manager for a consulting firm and describes himself as a Democratic-leaning political independent, calls safeguarding the freedoms of women and minorities abroad “essential” for the U.S.

But the increasing Republican and Democratic divide at home means Americans’ performance on that point is a “mixed bag,” with rights deteriorating in states most influenced by former President Donald Trump’s dismissive outlook, he said.

Chris Ormsby, 53, of Edmond, Oklahoma, an administrator in higher education who describes himself as a political independent, pointed to women’s rights in Iran, where women are spearheading weeks of protests triggered by government demands that women cover their hair, as among the rights issues playing out overseas.

“Maybe we can take more proactive steps” abroad on that, Ormsby said. But “I think there’s other things to worry about, nuclear proliferation and things like that.” He called slowing climate change by moving the world away from fossil fuels a priority for U.S. policy abroad.

That all makes for a strange split for those charged with shaping America’s policy on protections of human rights, Kohanteb, the Pearson Institute official, said.

“American policy is not as adamant about protecting our own rights as Americans believe we should be doing abroad,” she said.

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Dolby reported from New York.

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The poll of 1,003 adults was conducted Sep. 9-12 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

BY EMILY SWANSON AND JOSH BOAK Published 12:49 PM EDT, October 12, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — More U.S. adults are now feeling financially vulnerable amid high inflation — a political risk for President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats one month before the midterm elections.

Some 46% of people now call their personal financial situation poor, up from 37% in March, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s a notable downturn at a particularly inopportune moment for Biden, given that the share of Americans who felt positive about their finances had stayed rock steady over the last few years — even during the economic turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And while a majority of Americans see high prices as beyond Biden’s control, they continue to disapprove of his handling of the economy overall.

Overall, 54% say their finances are good in the latest survey. That figure was at least 62% through the global recession caused by the pandemic in 2020, and even in late 2021 and early 2022 as prices began to rise across the country. But inflation’s prolonged bite has left the U.S. and wider world facing the possibility of a downturn and, despite solid job growth, more consumers are feeling the pain.

In Salado, Texas, Bethany Saunders saw the rate she paid for electricity double in August, and her water bill jumped as well as she dealt with a summer heat and drought. Her utilities bills totaled $800, a shock to the 43-year-old, who had carefully budgeted after going without a pay raise for two years.

“That just drained my bank account — I’m not rich, but I knew what I could live on,” said Saunders, who voted Republican in 2020 and plans to do so again this year.

Overall, views of Biden and of the direction of the country held steady in October, after improving somewhat in September. Forty-three percent say they approve of how Biden is handling his job as president, while 25% say the country is headed in the right direction. Biden’s approval rating had dropped as low as 36% in a July AP-NORC poll, and the percentage saying the country is headed in the right direction dropped as low as 14% in June.

The president has been steadfast in saying he believes the economy can escape a recession, and he said in an interview broadcast Tuesday by CNN that any potential downturn would be modest.

“I don’t think there will be a recession,” Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “If it is, it’ll be a very slight recession. That is, we’ll move down slightly.”

Saunders doesn’t think Biden is entirely to blame for her higher bills, but she said h is $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package from last year with its direct payments to Americans was excessive. Some leading economists say the money helped ignite inflation that reached a 40-year peak in June. The government will release an inflation report on Thursday, and economists expect it to show that prices rose 8.1% in September from a year ago.

“I see him throwing money at things we don’t need,” Saunders said of Biden. “It makes me think of the Oprah episode that became famous. ‘You get a car, you get a car, you get a car.’”

The drop in financial well-being was especially acute among Americans in households making less than $50,000 a year, just 33% of whom now call their personal finances good compared with 50% in March. Sixty-one percent of those in household making between $50,000 and $100,000 call their personal finances good, as do 75% of those making more than that — both down only slightly since earlier in the year.

In the latest poll, 23% call the national economy good. That’s similar to the percentage in June but down slightly from 29% in September, when views of the national economy had shown signs of improvement. The drop since September came primarily among Democrats, from 46% then to 35% now. In September, Democrats had appeared increasingly optimistic about the economy compared with earlier in the summer.

Sandra Baker, 56, said she voted for Biden and intends to support Democrats in this year’s elections. The Lincoln, Nebraska resident said the president is trying his best to fix the economy and address political divides.

“He’s doing all he can do, but everything else is so screwed up it doesn’t really matter,” Baker said. “The general vibe — everything the Democrats do — seems to be toward helping the little man and it’s always been like that.”

But the economy has proved a challenge — with gasoline costs becoming a renewed source of financial pressure. The average price at the pump was $3.92 a gallon on Wednesday, up roughly 5.5% from a month ago, according to AAA. Support for Biden had picked up after a 99-day drop in gas prices from a June high that ended in September.

Views of Biden’s handling of the economy remain underwater. Only 36% say they approve and 63% disapprove. But Americans aren’t heaping all the blame for inflation at Biden’s feet: 55% say higher than usual prices are mostly because of factors outside Biden’s control, while 44% say that’s happening mostly because of Biden’s policies.

The president has blamed rising energy and food prices on Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine. He’s also blasted oil companies and refineries for raking in profits off the higher prices, instead of doing more to increase production. Saudi Arabia and other countries tied to OPEC dealt the U.S. a further blow last week by announcing plans to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day in response to the slowing economy, a move that the administration said would support oil exporters such as Russia.

There are bright spots in the poll for Biden — 55% say they approve of how he’s handling the coronavirus pandemic, long one of his strongest issues, and 63% approve of his handling of natural disaster relief following Hurricane Ian, which battered Florida two weeks ago. On the other hand, just 39% approve of how Biden is handling immigration.

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The poll of 1,121 adults was conducted Oct. 6-10 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

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BY DAVID KLEPPER Published 12:11 AM EDT, October 13, 2022

Americans from across the political spectrum say misinformation is increasing political extremism and hate crimes, according to a new poll that reflects broad and significant concerns about false and misleading claims ahead of next month’s midterm elections.

About three-quarters of U.S. adults say misinformation is leading to more extreme political views and behaviors such as instances of violence based on race, religion or gender. That’s according to the poll from the Pearson Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

“We’re at a point now where the misinformation is so bad you can trust very little of what you read in the media or social media,” said 49-year-old Republican Brett Reffeitt of Indianapolis, who participated in the survey. “It’s all about getting clicks, not the truth, and it’s the extremes that get the attention.”

The Pearson Institute/AP-NORC survey shows that regardless of political ideology, Americans agree misinformation is leaving a mark on the country.

Overall, 91% of adults say the spread of misinformation is a problem, with 74% calling it a major problem. Only 8% say misinformation isn’t a problem at all.

Big majorities of both parties — 80% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans — say misinformation increases extreme political views, according to the survey. Similarly, 85% of Democrats and 72% of Republicans say misinformation increases hate crimes, including violence motivated by gender, religion or race.

Overall, 77% of respondents think misinformation increases hate crimes, while 73% say it increases extreme political views.

“This is not a sustainable course,” said independent Rob Redding, 46, of New York City. Redding, who is Black, said he fears misinformation will spur more political polarization and violent hate crimes. “People are in such denial about how dangerous and divisive this situation is.”

About half say they believe misinformation leads people to become more politically engaged.

Roughly 7 in 10 Americans say they are at least somewhat concerned that they have been exposed to misinformation, though less than half said they are that worried that they were responsible for spreading it.

That’s consistent with previous polls that have found people are more likely to blame others than accept responsibility for the spread of misinformation.

Half of U.S. adults also believe misinformation reduces trust in government.

“Just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it’s true,” said 74-year-old Shirley Hayden, a Republican from Orange, Texas. “A lot of it is opinions and a lot of it is just troublemaking. I don’t believe any of it anymore.”

The poll finds that Americans who rate misinformation as a major problem are more likely to say it contributes to extreme political beliefs and distrust of government than those who do not. They’re also more likely to try to reduce the spread of misinformation by running claims by multiple sources or fact-checking websites.

Overall, roughly three-quarters of adults say they have decided not to share something on social media at least some of the time because they didn’t want to spread misinformation, including about half who do that most of the time. Similar percentages regularly check the sources of news they encounter and check other sources of information to ensure they’re not encountering misinformation.

Only 28% of Americans consult fact-checking sites or tools “most of the time,” though an additional 35% do some of the time. About a third say they do so hardly ever or never.

“My Facebook page is loaded with this stuff. I see it on TV. I see it everywhere,” 63-year-old Democrat Charles Lopez from the Florida Keys said of the misinformation he encounters. “Nobody does the research to find out if anything is fake or not.”

Whether it’s lies about the 2020 election or the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, COVID-19 conspiracy theories or disinformation about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, online misinformation has been blamed for increased political polarization, distrust of institutions and even real-world violence.

The spread of misinformation in recent decades has coincided with the rise of social media and declines in traditional, often local journalism outlets.

The results of the Pearson Institute/AP-NORC poll didn’t surprise Alex Mahadevan, director of MediaWise, a media literacy initiative launched by the Poynter Institute that works to equip individuals with defenses in the fight against misinformation.

“You have uncertainty, polarization, the decline of local news: it’s a perfect storm that’s created a flood of misinformation,” Mahadevan said.

People can teach themselves how to spot misinformation and avoid falling for dubious claims, according to Helen Lee Bouygues, founder and president of the Paris-based Reboot Foundation, which researches and promotes critical thinking in the internet age.

First, rely on a variety of trusted, established sources for news and fact checks, Bouygues said.

She also encouraged people to double-check claims that seem designed to play on emotions like anger or fear, and to think twice about reposting content that relies on loaded language, personal attacks or false comparisons.

“There are steps people can take — simple steps — to protect themselves,” Bouygues said.

Lopez, the survey respondent from Florida, said he has lost friends after pushing back on misinformation they posted online and that new laws are needed to force tech companies to do more to address misinformation. Maybe that will happen, he said, if voters can pierce the fog of misinformation ahead of next month’s election.

“You can always have hope,” Lopez said. “We’ll see what happens after this election. You may want to call me back then.”

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Associated Press writer Nuha Dolby in New York contributed to this report.

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The poll of 1,003 adults was conducted Sep. 9-12 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of misinformation at https://apnews.com/hub/misinformation.

Learn more about the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at www.apnorc.org.

BY HANNAH FINGERHUT Published 10:01 AM EDT, October 17, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — From his home in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, Graeme Dean says there’s plenty that’s disheartening about the state of the country and politics these days. At the center of one of this year’s most competitive U.S. Senate races, he’s on the receiving end of a constant barrage of vitriolic advertising that makes it easy to focus on what’s going wrong.

But the 40-year-old English teacher has no intention of disengaging from the democratic process. In fact, he believes that the first national election since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol is “more significant” than in years past.

“This could very well sway the country in one direction or another,” the Democratic-leaning independent said.

Dean is hardly alone in feeling the weight of this election. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center of Public Affairs Research finds 71% of registered voters think the very future of the U.S. is at stake when they vote this year. That’s true of voters who prefer Republicans win majorities in Congress, and those who want to see Democrats remain in control, though likely for different reasons.

While about two-thirds of voters say they are pessimistic about politics, overwhelming majorities across party lines — about 8 in 10 — say casting their ballot this year is extremely or very important.

The findings demonstrate how this year’s midterms are playing out in a unique environment, with voters both exhausted by the political process and determined to participate in shaping it. That could result in high turnout for a midterm election.

In the politically divided state of Michigan, for instance, over 150,000 voters have already cast absentee ballots. A total of 1.6 million people have requested absentee ballots so far, surpassing the 1.16 million who chose the option in the 2018 midterm election.

In follow-up interviews, poll respondents reported distinct concerns about the country’s direction despite agreement that things are not working.

Rick Moore, a 67-year-old writer and musician in Las Vegas, said he’s dissatisfied with President Joe Biden, and “not just because I’m a Republican.” Moore called him “more of a puppet” than any other president in his lifetime.

“It’s important to me that Republicans are in control of as much as possible because we’re not going to get rid of the Democratic president anytime soon,” Moore said.

In general, Moore said, he doesn’t like the way Democratic politicians run their states, including Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, adding that Democrats are “using the word democracy to make all of us do what they want.”

“I would just like to see my voice more represented,” he said.

Since the last midterm elections, voters have grown more negative about the country and people’s rights: 70% say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the U.S., up from 58% in October 2018.

Republicans have become enormously dissatisfied with a Democrat in the White House. While Democrats have become less negative since Donald Trump left office, they remain largely sour on the way things are going.

Fifty-eight percent of voters also say they are dissatisfied with the state of individual rights and freedoms in the U.S., up from 42% in 2018. About two-thirds of Republicans are now dissatisfied, after about half said they were satisfied when Trump was in office. Among Democrats, views have stayed largely the same, with about half dissatisfied.

Shawn Hartlage, 41, doesn’t think her views as a Christian are well represented, lamenting that she’d love to vote “for someone that really stood for what you believe,” but that it’s very important to her to vote anyway.

The Republican stay-at-home mother of two in Washington Township, Ohio, said the direction of the country is “devastating,” noting both inflation and a decline in moral values.

“I’m scared for my children’s future,” Hartlage said. “You always want to leave things better for them than what you had, but it’s definitely not moving in that direction.”

Teanne Townsend of Redford, Michigan, agrees that things are moving backward. But the 28-year-old called out abortion, health care and police brutality as especially concerning areas in which rights are being threatened.

“We have minimum progression in the right direction for a lot of areas, especially for people of minority (groups). Their rights are not the same as those of other races and cultures,” the Democrat, who is African American, said.

A children’s health and mental health specialist, Townsend said she’s voting for her constitutional right to an abortion this year. If passed, the state’s ballot initiative would guarantee abortion rights in the Michigan Constitution.

“I feel like it’s just a lot that’s at stake,” Townsend said, adding that she’s both “optimistic and nervous” about the outcome but that it’s “the right thing” for people to be able to vote on it.

The poll showed majorities of voters overall say the outcome of the midterms will have a significant impact on abortion policy, with Democratic voters more likely than Republican voters to say so. Most voters across party lines say the outcome will have a lot of impact on the economy.

More voters say they trust the Republican Party to handle the economy (39% vs. 29%), as well as crime (38% vs. 23%). Republicans also have a slight advantage on immigration (38% vs. 33%). The Democratic Party is seen as better able to handle abortion policy (45% vs. 22%), health care (42% vs. 25%) and voting laws (39% vs. 29%).

Despite the uncertainty in the outcome, Dean in Pennsylvania has faith in the American system to work for the will of the people.

“I think it’s important that our representatives represent what the majority of people want,” Dean said. “That’s what we claim we do in this country and it feels like it is what should happen. And I am hopeful.”

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The poll of 961 registered voters was conducted Oct. 6-10 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections.