Poll: Conservatives, liberals better informed than moderates, independents

Poll: Conservatives, liberals, better informed than moderates, independents

A new poll from Pew Research indicates that committed conservatives and liberals are more likely to be politically informed than their more moderate or independent counterparts. While the survey measured knowledge on a variety of issues, it focused on knowledge of the current party composition of the Senate to compare conservatives, liberals, and independents:

(Image credit: Pew)

(In case you're wondering, the correct answer is 54 Republicans, 44 Democrats, and two independents who caucus Democrat.)

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The poll also found that Republicans were marginally better informed on a variety of current and historical political facts, though on the Senate composition question they outpaced Democrats by quite a bit — 11 percent.

Meanwhile, a YouGov/Huffington Post poll found Americans believe the GOP is more "extreme" than the Democratic Party, but they were also more likely to say Republicans should stick to their guns in Washington even if it means failing to reach a bipartisan agreement.

Explore More
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.