Emmanuel Thomas l Thursday, June 14, 2018
WASHINGTON, D.C – Not less than 43 percent of Americans now believe that pornography is morally acceptable, no thanks to involvement of President Donald Trump with renowned Porn star, Stormy Daniels, an online poll has revealed. The online survey carried out by Gallup, showed that the figure about 7 percent up from the 36 percent of moral acceptability of ponorgraphy in American society just one year ago in 2017 and the organisers are attributing the spike to confession by Porn star that she had sex with Donald Trump before he became President of the United States.
On January 12, 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that former Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in October 2016, a month before the presidential election, to stop her from disclosing an affair she allegedly had with Trump in 2006. Stormy Daniels’s lawyer claimed that the payment was a cover-up. Cohen on January 14 denied the existence of an affair on behalf of his client, Trump, but on February 13 acknowledged having paid Daniels $130,000, saying the payment was made with his own funds.
According to Gallup, this result come from Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, conducted from May 1-10. Since it was first fielded in 2001, this survey has found considerable evidence that Americans are becoming increasingly liberal in terms of what actions or behaviors they find morally acceptable.
From 2011 onward, notable shifts in opinion are apparent for actions such as doctor-assisted suicide, gay/lesbian relations, sex between unmarried people and having a baby out of wedlock.
Until this year, though, Americans’ perceptions regarding the morality of pornography have changed at a more modest rate than these other issues. From 2011 to 2017, the percentage of Americans who find pornography morally acceptable rose by six points, whereas Americans’ opinions on those other issues changed by an average of nine points.
But in light of this year’s seven-point shift, perceptions that pornography is morally acceptable have increased more than any of the 16 other behaviors or practices Gallup has measured over the time span of 2011-2018.
In terms of politics, majority of Democrats (53%) say pornography is morally acceptable, against 42% recorded in 2017. Democrats’ acceptance of pornography has grown by 21 points since 2011, organisers of the poll said.
However, only 27% of Republicans regard pornography as morally acceptable compared with last year’s 25%. However, Republicans have become somewhat more accepting of pornography since 2011, with the percentage “morally acceptable” rising by 11 points.
Forty-five percent of independents say this year that pornography is morally acceptable, a five-point increase from last year. Overall, independents’ views on the morality of pornography have been relatively stable since 2011.
According to the poll, the partisan gap on the morality of pornography widened slightly this year (to 26 points), largely because of the sizable change in Democratic attitudes.
“Why Democrats’ attitudes shifted is less clear. While Democrats have become increasingly socially liberal, the percentage of Democrats who describe themselves as socially liberal this year is essentially unchanged from the year before. Another explanation is that Stormy Daniels, adult film star actress and fierce critic of President Donald Trump, has given pornography a sense of moral credibility that it previously lacked”, the poll noted.
According to the poll, the percentage of nonmarried individuals who find pornography morally acceptable rose 15 points to 50%. Acceptance of pornography among married individuals stood at 35% this year, whereas it was 37% in 2017.
“Meanwhile, 67% of men aged 18 to 49 this year say pornography is morally acceptable, a 14-point increase from last year. By contrast, perceptions remained relatively stable across other age-gender categories, including men who are 50 or older (a one-point increase), women aged 18 to 49 (+4 points) and women aged 50 and older (+7 points)”, the organisers of the poll said.
Among religious group, moral acceptability of pornography stood at 22% .
