Are we more progressive than we think?

In May 2024, just before the general election was announced, we ran some survey questions into the CharityTracker to gauge agreement with eight statements representing ‘progressive’ or ‘inclusive’ attitudes. Later in the survey, we asked respondents to estimate the percentage of the UK population that agreed with these same statements.

Our first statement tested openness to differing perspectives. On average we found most (63%) agreed (with just 8% in disagreement), while they estimated that most did not.

What explains this perception gap? We think it reflects a widespread belief, influenced by media and social media, that the nation has become more conservative and intolerant than it actually is.

Let’s look at the specific issues we tested.

As expected, agreement varied by issue – and clearly there’s work to be done. However, one consistent finding emerged: the perception gap exists across all the issues we tested. It tells us that people in the UK perceive themselves to hold more progressive or inclusive attitudes than the population at large.

The gap, then, is a measure of social division – and we suspect it’s widened in recent years.

So we’re putting a marker down here, and plan to rerun this survey in 12 months. We want to see if the perception gap narrows, and if overall agreement with these statements increases. One year from now, will people consider themselves to be more aligned to the national sentiment?

There are reasons for optimism. Since 2016, our CharityTracker has shown that, on average, progressive values have steadily grown in the UK population, despite the divisive effects of culture wars and politicisation of human rights. But with undue attention given to the fringes, and a government that has sought to cement power by sowing division, it’s easy to see why many now see themselves to be out of step with the country they live in.

Let’s see where we are next year.

Methodology

These questions were added to the CharityTracker survey in May 2024. The survey sample is 3,000 UK adults (aged 18+), with nationally-representative quotas on age/gender (interlocking), ethnicity, region and socioeconomic group.

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