For the most part, Americans don’t think a woman president would do better or worse than a man when it comes to key leadership traits or the handling of various policy areas.

At the same time, the public sees differences in the way men and women running for higher office are treated by the media. And many think women candidates are punished more than men for showing emotions and having young children at home, among other attributes.

With Kamala Harris serving as vice president and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley vying for the Republican presidential nomination, we asked Americans about their views on:

• The state of gender and political leadership
• The obstacles for women seeking high political office
• How a woman president might be different from a president who is a man

When asked how important it is that a woman be elected president in their lifetime, a relatively small share of U.S. adults (18%) say this is extremely or very important to them. Most (64%) say this is not too or not at all important or that the president’s gender doesn’t matter. These views vary by gender and partisanship.

Related: The Data on Women Leaders

Only one-in-four U.S. adults say it’s extremely or very likely that the United States will elect a woman president in their lifetime. About half (49%) say this is somewhat likely and 26% say it’s not too or not at all likely.

The findings in this report come from two surveys using Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel.¹ Most of the questions were asked of 5,057 U.S. adults from July 17 to July 23, 2023. The questions about the importance and likelihood of a woman being elected president were asked of 11,201 U.S. adults from July 31 to August 6, 2023.

Other key findings:

Number of women in office

Today, 53% of Americans say there are too few women in high political offices in the United States. This is down from 59% in 2018.

Looking ahead, 52% say that, as more women run for office, it’s only a matter of time before there are as many women as men in these positions. Some 46% say men will continue to hold more of these positions in the future. For more detail on views of the state of gender and political leadership, refer to Chapter 1 of this report.

Why there are fewer women than men in office

Many Americans see several major reasons why there are fewer women than men in high political offices, such as:

• Women having to do more to prove themselves than men (54%)
• Gender discrimination (47%)
• Women getting less support from party leaders (47%)
• Many Americans not being ready to elect a woman to higher office (46%)
• Family responsibilities (44%)

For more detail on views of the obstacles for women seeking high political office, refer to Chapter 2 of this report.

How the media treats men and women running for office

Physical appearance

Overall, 62% of Americans say the media focuses too much on the physical appearance of women running for high elected office. Fewer (35%) say there’s too much focus on men’s appearance.

Views on key policy issues

In turn, 62% say there’s not enough focus on women candidates’ views on key policy issues, compared with 49% who say the same about how the media treats men running for office.

Candidate traits and gender

Showing emotions and having young children at home

By wide margins, more see showing emotions and having young children at home as disadvantages for women than for men seeking high political office.

• A majority (58%) say showing emotions hurts a woman’s chances of getting elected; 33% say this hurts a man’s chances.
• While 48% see having young children at home as a disadvantage for women candidates, just 7% see it as a disadvantage for men.

Other traits

Americans are also more likely to say not having experience in elected office and being older than 70 hurts women than to say it hurts men running for office, though majorities say these factors hurt both women and men.

Being physically attractive is the only trait we asked about that is seen by majorities as helping both women (66%) and men (60%).

Candidate race and gender

Most Americans (65%) think voters are more likely to support a candidate if the candidate is a White man. A smaller share say voters are more likely to support a candidate who is a White woman, though being a White woman is still seen as more likely to help than hurt a candidate’s chances (36% vs. 25%).

In contrast, the public sees being a Black man or woman, a Hispanic man or woman, or an Asian man or woman as more hurtful than helpful with voters. In each case, more see being a woman than see being a man as a disadvantage for candidates.

How a woman president might be different than a man

Half or more say that a woman president would be neither better nor worse than a man or that a president’s gender doesn’t matter when it comes to their handling of various policy areas or to several leadership traits.

Still, more than a third say a woman president would do better than a man when it comes to:

• Handling education (46%)
• Handling health care (45%)
• Working out compromises (39%)
• Maintaining a respectful tone in politics (37%)

For more detail on views of how a woman president might be different from a man, refer to Chapter 3 of this report.

Differences by gender and party

These survey findings often vary by gender and partisanship. And in some cases, there are gender differences within each party. Some examples of how views vary by:

• Gender: Women are more likely than men to say there are too few women in high political offices in the U.S. today (63% of women and 42% of men say this). Women are also more likely than men to say most factors we asked about – such as gender discrimination, women having to do more to prove themselves than men, and sexual harassment – are major obstacles for women in politics.
• Partisanship: 31% of Democrats and Democratic leaners say it is extremely or very important to them that the U.S. elects a woman as president in their lifetime. Just 5% of Republicans and Republican leaners say the same. Democrats are also more likely than Republicans to say a woman president would do better than presidents who are men in when it comes to each of the policy areas and leadership traits we asked about.
• Gender within each party: Republican women are about twice as likely as Republican men to say there are too few women in high political offices in the country today (40% vs. 19%). Majorities of Republican (59%) and Democratic (57%) men say that, as more women run for high political office, it is only a matter of time before there are as many women as men in these positions. About half of Republican women (49%) and 45% of Democratic women think this will happen.

A narrow majority of U.S. adults (53%) say there are too few women in high political offices in the United States today. Some 37% say there are about the right number of women and 8% say there are too many women elected to higher offices.

The share saying there are too few women in high political offices is down from 59% since we last asked this question in 2018.

Views on this differ widely by gender and political affiliation. And there are also differences between Democratic men and women and between Republican men and women.

By gender

Most women (63%) say there are too few women in high political offices. Three-in-ten say there are about the right number of women and just 5% say there are too many.

Views are more divided among men: 42% say there are too few women and 46% say there are about the right number. About one-in-ten men (11%) say there are too many women in high political offices.

By partisanship

Three-quarters of Democrats and Democratic leaners say there are too few women in high political offices today. A much smaller share of Republicans and Republican leaners (29%) say the same. A majority of Republicans (56%) say there are about the right number of women in these offices.

Republican women are about twice as likely as Republican men to say there are too few women in high political offices (40% vs. 19%). Republican men are about as likely to say there are too few women in these elected offices as they are to say there are too many.

About six-in-ten Republican men (62%) say there are about the right number of women in high political offices, compared with 51% of Republican women.

Majorities of Democratic men and women say there are too few women in high political offices. But Democratic women (82%) are more likely than Democratic men (67%) to say this.

The ideal number of women and men in high elected positions

Most people (77%) who say there are too few women in high political offices say it would be ideal to have about an equal number of men and women in these offices. About one-in-ten (9%) say it would be ideal if there were more women than there are now but still not as many women as men. And 13% say it would be ideal to have more women than men in these positions.

Majorities of Democrats and Republicans who say there are too few women in high elected offices say it would be ideal for there to be about an equal number of men and women. Still, there are some differences in these views by party. Among those who say there are too few women in these offices:

• 18% of Democrats – but just 4% of Republicans – say it would be ideal for there to be more women than men in high political offices.
• Republicans (15%) are about twice as likely as Democrats (7%) to say it would be ideal to have more women in high political offices than there are now, but still not as many women as men.

Will there ever be as many women as men in high political offices?

Looking ahead, about half of Americans (52%) say that, as more women run for office, it is only a matter of time before there are as many women as men in high political offices. A smaller but sizeable share (46%) say men will continue to hold more high political offices in the future. These views are unchanged from five years ago.

By gender

A majority of men (58%) say it’s only a matter of time before there are as many women as men in high political offices. A smaller share of women (46%) say the same, while 51% say men will continue to hold more of these positions, even as more women run for office.

By partisanship

More than half of Republicans (54%) say it’s only a matter of time before there are as many women as men in high elected offices. Democrats are more divided: 51% agree, while 48% say men will continue to hold more high political offices in the future.

Majorities of Republican and Democratic men (59% and 57%, respectively) say there will eventually be as many women as men in high political offices. Republican women are about evenly divided, while Democratic women are somewhat more likely to say men will continue to hold more of these offices (53%) than to say it’s only a matter of time before there are as many women as men in these positions (45%).

The survey asked about possible reasons why there are more men than women in high political offices.

Of the eight reasons we asked about, only one – women having to do more to prove themselves than men – is seen as a major reason by a majority of Americans (54%).

More than four-in-ten point to gender discrimination (47%), women getting less support from party leaders (47%), many Americans not being ready to elect a woman to higher office (46%), and family responsibilities (44%) as major obstacles for women in politics.

Some 37% see sexual harassment as a major obstacle for women seeking high political office. About a third (34%) say women aren’t encouraged to be leaders from an early age and 23% say not as many women are interested in holding higher office.

How views have changed

Since we last asked this question in 2018, smaller shares now say the following are major reasons why there are fewer women than men in high political offices:

• Women aren’t encouraged to be leaders from an early age (-8 percentage points)
• Women who run for office have to do more to prove themselves than men (-7 points)
• Women get less support from party leaders (-5 points)
• Not as many women are interested in holding higher office (-4 points)

In contrast, a larger share now point to family responsibilities: 44% now say this is a major reason why there are fewer women than men in higher offices, compared with 36% five years ago. Views on the other items are unchanged from 2018.

By gender

Women are more likely than men to see almost all the reasons we asked about as major obstacles for women in politics. In fact, there are differences of 10 percentage points or more on six of the eight items.

Men are more likely than women to point to women being less interested in holding political office as a major reason why there are fewer women than men in these positions.

By partisanship

There are wide partisan differences in views of the obstacles for women in politics.

Majorities of Democrats and Democratic leaners say each of the following is a major reason why there are fewer women than men in high political offices:

• Women have to do more to prove themselves than men (72%)
• Women in politics face gender discrimination (67%)
• Women get less support from party leaders (62%)
• Many Americans aren’t ready to elect a woman to higher office (58%)

The shares of Republicans and Republican leaners who see each of the items noted above as major obstacles range from 26% to 36%.

Democrats are also more likely than Republicans to point to sexual harassment and women not being encouraged to pursue leadership positions from an early age as major reasons why there are fewer women than men in high elected offices.

In turn, Republicans are about twice as likely as Democrats to cite women being less interested in holding higher office as a major reason (31% vs. 16%).

Democratic women are the most likely – and Republican men are the least likely – to see nearly every item we asked about as a major obstacle for women seeking high elected offices. But similar shares of Democratic and Republican women (about half of each) see family responsibilities as a major reason why there aren’t more women in these positions, compared with 41% of Republican men and 37% of Democratic men.

Views of how the media treat men and women running for high political office

The public sees differences in the way men and women running for high political office are treated by the media.

These differences are especially wide when it comes to how much the media focuses on candidates’ physical appearance and their views on key policies.

• Most Americans (62%) say there is too much focus on the physical appearance of women running for high elected office. About a third (35%) say this is the case when it comes to men running for these positions.
• 62% say there is not enough focuson women candidates’ views on key policies, compared with 49% who say the same about how the media treats men running for high political office.

Differences are less pronounced but still significant when it comes to views of how much the media focuses on men’s and women’s personality and their ability to solve the country’s problems.

• Majorities say there is not enough media focus on candidates’ ability to solve the country’s problems, whether the candidate is a man or a woman. But more say this is the case for women than for men running for high elected office (67% vs. 59%).
• Some 47% say there is too much focus on the personality of women running for high political office. A smaller share (39%) say the same about how the media treats men running for these positions.

Traits people think help or hurt men and women running for office

The survey asked how certain traits impact a man’s or a woman’s chances of getting elected to high political offices.

Majorities say not having experience in elected office and being older than 70 hurts men’s and women’s chances a lot or a little, but more see a negative impact for women. About 80% say each of these traits hurts a woman’s chances of getting elected, compared with about 60% who say these traits hurt a man’s chances.

By wide margins, more also say the following traits hurt a woman’s chances of being elected than say they hurt a man’s chances:

• Showing emotions: 58% say this hurts a woman’s chances, compared with 33% who say it hurts a man’s chances of being elected.
• Having young children at home: 48% say this hurts a woman’s chances of being elected, while just 7% say it has a similar impact on a man’s chances. In fact, 28% say having children at home helps a man’s chances of getting elected, compared with 14% who say this helps women running for office.
• Being assertive: More say being assertive helps than say it hurts both men and women running for office. But while 73% say this trait helps men, fewer (49%) say it helps women. Some 29% say being assertive hurts a woman’s chances of getting elected, compared with 6% who say it hurts a man’s chances.

Being physically attractive is the only trait we asked about that is seen by majorities as having a positive impact on both a man’s and a woman’s chances. But more say being physically attractive helps women than say it helps men running for office (66% vs. 60%).

Views of how a candidate’s gender, race and ethnicity impact their chances of election

We asked Americans if they think voters are more likely, less likely, or neither more nor less likely to support a candidate for high political office depending on the candidate’s gender, race and ethnicity.

About two-thirds (65%) think American voters are more likely to vote for a candidate if the candidate is a White man.

A much smaller share (36%) say voters would be more likely to vote for a White woman. Still, more see being a White woman as an advantage than as a disadvantage for someone running for office (25% think voters would be less likely to vote for a candidate who was a White woman and 37% say voters would be neither more nor less likely to vote for a White woman).

In contrast, more see being a Black man or woman, a Hispanic man or woman, or an Asian man or woman as a disadvantage than see it as an advantage for someone running for high elected office.

In each case, women are seen as having a bigger disadvantage than men in the same racial or ethnic group. For example, 54% think American voters are less likely to vote for a candidate who is a Black woman, compared with 37% who say voters are less likely to vote for a Black man.

The same pattern exists to varying degrees for Hispanic or Asian candidates: In each case, a greater share of Americans say voters are less likely to support a woman than a man.

The survey asked whether a woman president would be better, worse, or neither better nor worse than a man when it comes to several leadership traits.

For each trait asked about, majorities say that a woman president would be neither better nor worse or that the president’s gender doesn’t matter.

For those who do see a gender difference, larger shares say a woman president would be better than say she would be worse than a man.

Some 39% say a woman president would be better at working out compromises. A similar share (37%) say a woman would be better at maintaining a respectful tone in politics.

About a third say a woman president would be better than a man at being honest and ethical (34%) and standing up for what she believes in, despite political pressure (32%). Some 27% say a woman would be better at working well under pressure.

By gender

By 11 percentage points or more, women are more likely than men to say that a woman president would be somewhat or a lot better than a man at every leadership trait asked about.

There are particularly large differences between the shares of men and women who say a woman president would be better at working out compromises and working well under pressure.

Nearly half of women (47%) say a woman president would be better at working out compromises. A notably smaller share of men (30%) say the same. And women are twice as likely as men to say that a woman president would be a lot or somewhat better at working well under pressure (36% vs. 18%).

By partisanship

Democrats and Democratic leaners are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say a woman president would do a lot or somewhat better than a man at each leadership trait. By 18 percentage points, Democrats are more likely to say a woman president would be better at working out compromises, maintaining a respectful tone in politics,and being honest and ethical.

Even though greater shares of Democrats say a woman president would be better at these leadership traits, about one-in-five or more Republicans say a woman president would be better than a man at each of the traits asked about. These shares are larger than the shares of Republicans who say a woman would be worse than a man at most of these traits.

Gender differences among Republicans and Democrats

Within each party, women are more likely than men to say that a woman president would be a lot or somewhat better than a man at each leadership trait. Among Republicans, differences between men’s and women’s views are especially large when it comes to working out compromises (22% vs. 39%) and working well under pressure (12% vs. 29%). There are also differences of 11 points or more in the shares of Democratic men and women who say a woman president would be better than a man at each of the traits we asked about.

On every leadership trait, Democratic women are more than twice as likely as Republican men to say that a woman president would be a lot or somewhat better than presidents who are men.

Similar shares of Republican women and Democratic men say a woman president would be better than a man at working out compromises and standing up for what she believes in, despite political pressure.

The only trait for which Republican women (29%) are more likely than Democratic men (24%) to say a woman would do better is working well under pressure.

How a woman president would compare with presidents who are men in handling several policy areas

Half or more of Americans say that, when it comes to handling education, health care, gun policy, economic issues, crime, and national security and defense, a woman president would be neither better nor worse than a man or that the president’s gender doesn’t matter.

Among those who do see a gender difference, more say a woman president would be better than say she would be worse than a man at handling most of these policy areas. This is especially the case when it comes to:

• Education: 46% of U.S. adults say that a woman would handle this somewhat or a lot better than presidents who are men; only 3% say a woman would do worse.

• Health care: 45% say a woman president would do better than a man in this area, while just 5% say a woman would do worse.

By gender

Women are more likely than men to say that a woman president would be a lot or somewhat better than a man at handling every key policy area by a difference of 10 percentage points or more.

When it comes to economic issues and to national security and defense, about twice the share of women as men say that a woman president would do better than a man.

Among both men and women, the policy areas with the largest shares saying a woman president would do better are education and health care.

In turn, the policy area with the smallest shares of both men and women saying a woman president would do better is national security and defense.

By partisanship

For each policy asked about, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say that a woman president would do a lot or somewhat better than a man.

The difference is widest when it comes to gun policy. Democrats are about three and a half times more likely than Republicans to say a woman president would do better in this area (44% vs. 12%).

Gender differences among Republicans and Democrats

Among both Republicans and Democrats, women are more likely than men to say that a woman president would do better in all the policy areas asked about.

How a woman president would impact the world’s respect for the U.S.

The survey asked how having a woman as president would impact how the rest of the world sees the United States.

A majority say that having a woman as president would make the U.S. neither more nor less respected or that the president’s gender wouldn’t have an impact (54%). 

About one-in-five Americans (22%) say a woman president would make the U.S. a lot or somewhat more respected, and an equal share say this would make the U.S. a lot or somewhat less respected.

Men and women give similar answers to this question.

By partisanship

Democrats are more than three times as likely as Republicans to say that a woman president would make the U.S. more respected (34% vs. 10%). In turn, Republicans are about twice as likely as Democrats to say that a woman president would make the U.S. less respected (31% vs. 15%).

Republicans (58%) are also more likely than Democrats (51%) to say that having a woman as president would make the U.S. neither more nor less respected or that the president’s gender would not have an impact.

How important is it that the U.S. elects a woman president?

In a separate survey, we asked Americans how important it is to them personally that the U.S. elects a woman president in their lifetime and how likely they think it is that this will happen.

A majority of adults (64%) say that it’s not at all or not too important to them personally that the U.S. elects a woman president in their lifetime or that the president’s gender doesn’t matter.

Some 18% say it’s extremely or very important to them that the U.S. elects a woman president in their lifetime, and the same share says this is somewhat important to them.

There are wider differences on this question by party than by age or gender.

By gender

Women (21%) are more likely than men (13%) to say it is highly important to them that a woman is elected president in their lifetime. In turn, greater shares of men than women say that this is either not at all or not too important to them or that the president’s gender doesn’t matter. However, a majority of both men and women say this.

A quarter of women younger than 50 say this is extremely or very important to them – greater than the shares of women 50 and older (17%) and men of any age (13%) who say the same.

By partisanship

About three-in-ten Democrats (31%) say it is extremely or very important to them that the U.S. elects a woman president in their lifetime, compared with just 5% of Republicans.

In turn, Republicans (86%) are twice as likely as Democrats (43%) to say it is not at all or not too important if they ever see a woman elected U.S. president or that the president’s gender doesn’t matter to them.

Will there be a woman president in the near future?

Americans find no consensus on how likely it is that the U.S. will elect a woman in their lifetime. About half of adults (49%) say it is somewhat likely this will happen, a quarter say it is extremely or very likely, and about an equal share (26%) say it is not too or not at all likely.

Among those who say it’s highly important to them that a woman is elected president in their lifetime, 39% say this is extremely or very likely to happen, 41% say it’s somewhat likely, and 20% say it’s not too or not at all likely that they’ll see a woman elected president.

Smaller shares of those who say it’s somewhat important to them that a woman be elected president (23%) or that it’s not important or that the president’s gender doesn’t matter (22%) say it’s highly likely that the U.S. will elect a woman president in their lifetime.

By gender

Greater shares of men (30%) than women (21%) say it is extremely or very likely that there will be a woman president in their lifetime.

Among women, more say this is not too or not at all likely (28%) than say it’s extremely or very likely (21%).

On the other hand, a larger share of men say it is extremely or very likely (30%) than say it is not too or not at all likely (23%).

By partisanship 

A slightly larger share of Democrats (29%) than Republicans (22%) say they think it’s likely there will be a woman elected president in their lifetime.

This report is a collaborative effort based on the input and analysis of the following individuals. Find reports related to gender online at pewresearch.org/topic/gender-lgbtq and reports related to politics at pewresearch.org/topic/politics-policy.

Kim Parker, Director of Social Trends Research
Juliana Horowitz, Associate Director, Research
Isabel Goddard, Research Associate      
Rachel Minkin, Research Associate        
Luona Lin, Research Associate               
Kiley Hurst, Research Analyst             
Dana Braga, Research Assistant
Shannon Greenwood, Senior Digital Producer       
John Carlo Mandapat, Information Graphics Designer     
Anna Jackson, Editorial Assistant                                              
Tanya Arditi, Senior Communications Manager                              
Julia O’Hanlon, Communications Manager

In addition, the project benefited greatly from the guidance of the Pew Research Center methodology team: Courtney Kennedy, Andrew Mercer, Ashley Amaya, Dorene Asare-Marfo, Dana Popky, Anna Brown and Arnold Lau.

The American Trends Panel survey methodology

Overview

The American Trends Panel (ATP), created by Pew Research Center, is a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. Panelists participate via self-administered web surveys. Panelists who do not have internet access at home are provided with a tablet and wireless internet connection. Interviews are conducted in both English and Spanish. The panel is being managed by Ipsos.

Data in this report is drawn from ATP Wave 131, conducted from July 17 to July 23, 2023, and includes an oversample of Hispanic men, non-Hispanic Black men and non-Hispanic Asian men in order to provide more precise estimates of the opinions and experiences of these smaller demographic subgroups. These oversampled groups are weighted back to reflect their correct proportions in the population. A total of 5,057 panelists responded out of 5,875 who were sampled, for a response rate of 86%. The cumulative response rate accounting for nonresponse to the recruitment surveys and attrition is 3%. The break-off rate among panelists who logged on to the survey and completed at least one item is 1%. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 5,057 respondents is plus or minus 1.7 percentage points.

Panel recruitment

The ATP was created in 2014, with the first cohort of panelists invited to join the panel at the end of a large, national, landline and cellphone random-digit dial survey that was conducted in both English and Spanish. Two additional recruitments were conducted using the same method in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Across these three surveys, a total of 19,718 adults were invited to join the ATP, of whom 9,942 (50%) agreed to participate.

In August 2018, the ATP switched from telephone to address-based sampling (ABS) recruitment. A study cover letter and a pre-incentive are mailed to a stratified, random sample of households selected from the U.S. Postal Service’s Delivery Sequence File. This Postal Service file has been estimated to cover as much as 98% of the population, although some studies suggest that the coverage could be in the low 90% range.² Within each sampled household, the adult with the next birthday is asked to participate. Other details of the ABS recruitment protocol have changed over time but are available upon request.³

We have recruited a national sample of U.S. adults to the ATP approximately once per year since 2014. In some years, the recruitment has included additional effort (known as an “oversample”) to boost sample size with under-represented groups. For example, Hispanic adults, Black adults, and Asian adults were oversampled in 2019, 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Across the six address-based recruitments, a total of 23,862 adults were invited to join the ATP, of whom 20,917 agreed to join the panel and completed an initial profile survey. Of the 30,859 individuals who have ever joined the ATP, 12,950 remained active panelists and continued to receive survey invitations at the time this survey was conducted.

The American Trends Panel never uses breakout routers or chains that direct respondents to additional surveys.

Sample design

The overall target population for this survey was non-institutionalized persons ages 18 and older living in the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii. It featured a stratified random sample from the ATP in which Hispanic men, non-Hispanic Black men, and non-Hispanic Asian men were selected with certainty. The remaining panelists were sampled at rates designed to ensure that the share of respondents in each stratum is proportional to its share of the U.S. adult population to the greatest extent possible. Respondent weights are adjusted to account for differential probabilities of selection as described in the Weighting section below.

Questionnaire development and testing

The questionnaire was developed by Pew Research Center in consultation with Ipsos. The web program was rigorously tested on both PC and mobile devices by the Ipsos project management team and Pew Research Center researchers. The Ipsos project management team also populated test data that was analyzed in SPSS to ensure the logic and randomizations were working as intended before launching the survey.

Incentives

All respondents were offered a post-paid incentive for their participation. Respondents could choose to receive the post-paid incentive in the form of a check or a gift code to Amazon.com or could choose to decline the incentive. Incentive amounts ranged from $5 to $20 depending on whether the respondent belongs to a part of the population that is harder or easier to reach. Differential incentive amounts were designed to increase panel survey participation among groups that traditionally have low survey response propensities.

Data collection protocol

The data collection field period for this survey was July 17 to July 23, 2023. Postcard notifications were mailed to all ATP panelists with a known residential address on July 17. 

Invitations were sent out in two separate launches: soft launch and full launch. Sixty panelists were included in the soft launch, which began with an initial invitation sent on July 17. The ATP panelists chosen for the initial soft launch were known responders who had completed previous ATP surveys within one day of receiving their invitation. All remaining English- and Spanish-speaking sampled panelists were included in the full launch and were sent an invitation on July 18.

All panelists with an email address received an email invitation and up to two email reminders if they did not respond to the survey. All ATP panelists who consented to SMS messages received an SMS invitation and up to two SMS reminders.

Data quality checks

To ensure high-quality data, the Center’s researchers performed data quality checks to identify any respondents showing clear patterns of satisficing. This includes checking for very high rates of leaving questions blank, as well as always selecting the first or last answer presented. As a result of this checking, one ATP respondent was removed from the survey dataset prior to weighting and analysis.

Weighting

The ATP data is weighted in a multistep process that accounts for multiple stages of sampling and nonresponse that occur at different points in the survey process. First, each panelist begins with a base weight that reflects their probability of selection for their initial recruitment survey. These weights are then rescaled and adjusted to account for changes in the design of ATP recruitment surveys from year to year. Finally, the weights are calibrated to align with the population benchmarks in the accompanying table to correct for nonresponse to recruitment surveys and panel attrition. If only a subsample of panelists was invited to participate in the wave, this weight is adjusted to account for any differential probabilities of selection.

Among the panelists who completed the survey, this weight is then calibrated again to align with the population benchmarks identified in the accompanying table and trimmed at the 1st and 99th percentiles to reduce the loss in precision stemming from variance in the weights. Sampling errors and tests of statistical significance take into account the effect of weighting.

The following table shows the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for different groups in the survey.

Sample sizes and sampling errors for other subgroups are available upon request. In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

Dispositions and response rates