Irish Attitudes to Political CorrectnessAn Amárach Briefing

January 2017

2016 was a year in which political correctness become an election issue in the United States.

In December 2016, Amárachsurveyed a representative sample of Irish adults on the issue of political correctness, comparing our attitudes to those in the United States and Canada.

The US & Canadian surveys were carried out by Pew Research in July 2016 & Angus Reid Institute in August 2016 respectively.

This report summarizes the main findings from the surveys.

Mind YourLanguage

4

Q. Which comes closer to your own views - even if neither is exactly right?

Irish people are more inclined to agree people need to be more careful about the language they use than people in the USA and Canada.

39%33%

43%

59%67%

57%

USA CANADA IRELAND

People need to be more careful about the language they use to avoidoffending people with different backgrounds

Too many people are easily offended these days over the language othersuse

5

Q. Which comes closer to your own views - even if neither is exactly right?

Women are more sensitive to the use of potentially offensive language than men, though even a majority of young people think too many people are easily offended.

43% 39%48% 44% 49%

40% 37% 44% 43% 44%

57% 61%52% 56% 51%

60% 63% 56% 57% 56%

All IrishAdults

Male Female 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+ ABC1 C2DE

Too many people are easily offended these days over the language others use

People need to be more careful about the language they use to avoid offending people withdifferent backgrounds

6

Q. Thinking about your day-to-day life, how often, if at all, would you say you hold your tongue, that is, choose not to say something you might otherwise have said because of the other people who are present?

The Irish are as likely as Canadians to ‘bite their tongue’ when it comes to speech.

17% 18%

55%50%

26% 25%

3%7%

CANADA IRELAND

Often Sometimes Rarely Never

7

Q. And, when you hold your tongue in these situations, which of the following is closer to your most frequent reason for doing so? Would you say you: (even if neither is exactly right?) – base: those who hold their tongue

The Irish are more likely to wish to avoid judgement than Canadians.

13%19%

87%81%

CANADA IRELAND

Do not want to be judged Want to be polite

8

Men and those aged 25-34 are more likely to want to avoid judgement as their reason for holding their tongue in conversation.

19% 22% 16% 19%28% 23%

14% 12%20% 18%

81% 78% 84% 81%72% 77%

86% 88%80% 82%

All IrishAdults

Male Female 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+ ABC1 C2DE

Do not want to be judged Want to be polite

Q. And, when you hold your tongue in these situations, which of the following is closer to your most frequent reason for doing so? Would you say you: (even if neither is exactly right?) – base: those who hold their tongue

PoliticalCorrectness

10

Q. Would you say you agree or disagree with each of the following statements? People who complain about political correctness just resent that they can not say everything they want to anymore

Irish people are slightly more likely to agree that complaints about political correctness are driven by resentment.

43%38%

57%62%

CANADA IRELAND

Disagree Agree

11

Men and those aged 25-34 are more likely to disagree with the sentiment that complaints about political correctness are motivated by resentment.

38% 42% 35% 30%46%

37% 38% 37% 40% 36%

62% 58% 65% 70%54%

63% 62% 63% 60% 64%

All IrishAdults

Male Female 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+ ABC1 C2DE

Disagree Agree

Q. Would you say you agree or disagree with each of the following statements? People who complain about political correctness just resent that they can not say everything they want to anymore

12

Q. Would you say you agree or disagree with each of the following statements? There are certain opinions you just should not express in front of people you do not know

Canadian and Irish opinions are practically identical on the issue of expressing opinions in front of strangers.

22% 23%

78% 77%

CANADA IRELAND

Disagree Agree

13

There are relatively few significant differences on this issue.

23% 26% 21% 20%33%

25% 23% 16%25% 22%

77% 74% 79% 80%67%

75% 77% 84%75% 78%

All IrishAdults

Male Female 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+ ABC1 C2DE

Disagree Agree

Q. Would you say you agree or disagree with each of the following statements? There are certain opinions you just should not express in front of people you do not know

14

Q. Would you say you agree or disagree with each of the following statements? These days, it seems like you can not say anything without someone feeling offended

At the same time, the vast majority of people in both countries feel that the level of ‘sensitivity’ is very high nowadays.

20% 23%

81% 77%

CANADA IRELAND

Disagree Agree

15

Q. Would you say you agree or disagree with each of the following statements? Political correctness has gone too far

Once again, Canadian and Irish opinions are identical when it comes to the view that political correctness has gone too far.

24% 24%

76% 76%

CANADA IRELANDDisagree Agree

16

Men and those aged 55+ in our survey are more likely to agree that political correctness has gone too far, but the reality is that the vast majority of Irish adults - regardless of sex, age or

social class – think political correctness has gone too far.

24% 21% 26% 26%37%

21% 24%13%

24% 24%

76% 79% 74% 74%63%

79% 76%87%

76% 76%

All IrishAdults

Male Female 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+ ABC1 C2DE

Disagree Agree

Q. Would you say you agree or disagree with each of the following statements? Political correctness has gone too far

Free Speech

18

Finally, our January 2017 poll for the RTE Claire Byrne Live programme shows that Irish people are overwhelmingly against placing limits on free speech to protect people from being offended,

with little variation by population group.

23% 21% 24% 27%

16%22%

29%23%

19%26%

77% 79% 76% 73%

84%78%

71%77%

81%74%

All IrishAdults

Male Female 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+ ABC1 C2DE

Yes No

Q. Do you support placing limits on free speech to protect people from being offended?

The issue of political correctness will likely become even more contested in 2017 in some countries.

Though it has been less of an issue in Ireland than in North America, it is interesting nevertheless to see how close Irish opinions are to those on the other side of the Atlantic.

How the debate around political correctness evolves in European politics will be an important issue in the year ahead.

Trends Report

Sources

Ireland: Amárach omnibus, December 2016http://www.amarach.com/services/amarach-omnibus.htm

Canada:Angus Reid Institute, August 2016http://angusreid.org/political-correctness/

USA:Pew Research, July 2016http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/20/in-political-correctness-debate-most-americans-think-too-many-people-are-easily-offended/

Trends Report

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