When it comes to morality, Americans don’t see much wrong with using birth control or getting a divorce, but few support extramarital affairs or human cloning.
The latest poll results from Gallup spell out what activities U.S. adults view as morally acceptable and which ones are seen as immoral.
Most Americans believe birth control (90%), divorce (75%), sex between an unmarried man and woman (68%), having a baby outside of marriage (67%), gay or lesbian relations (64%), gambling (63%), human embryonic stem cell research (63%), buying or wearing animal fur clothing (61%), the death penalty (56%) and doctor-assisted suicide (53%) are morally OK.
U.S. adults are more divided on abortion (49% morally acceptable v. 40% morally wrong) and medical testing on animals (47% morally acceptable v. 47% morally wrong).
Fewer Americans say sex between teenagers (41%), changing one’s gender (40%), pornography (35%), cloning animals (34%), polygamy (21%), suicide (21%), cloning humans (8%), and married men and women having an affair (8%) are morally OK choices.
Changing morality
The moral views of Americans are not static, however. Many have shifted over the more than 20 years Gallup has conducted this poll. Mostly, Americans have grown more permissive.
Only medical testing on animals has seen a sustained, significant decline in the percentage of adults who view it as morally acceptable. In 2001, 65% of Americans said it was morally OK. Now, just 47% support it.
The percentage of those who view the death penalty as morally acceptable has also dropped, but the dip has been smaller and less sustained over the past three decades — 63% in 2001 to 56% in 2025.
Support for changing one’s gender also fell this year, but it has only been asked in the past four years. In 2021, 46% believed it was morally acceptable. In 2025, 40% still agree. A 2016 Lifeway Research study of Americans found only 35% believed it was morally wrong for an individual to identify with a gender different than the sex they were born.
A 2021 Lifeway Research study of U.S. Protestant pastors found 72% say it’s morally wrong to identify with a gender different from your birth sex, and 77% say it’s morally wrong to change the gender you were born with through surgery or taking hormones.
On the other hand, Gallup found numerous activities have become more socially acceptable in America since 2001, including divorce (59% to 75%), sex between an unmarried man and woman (53% to 68%), gay or lesbian relations (40% to 64%) and suicide (13% to 21%).
Other activities were first asked about more recently, but they have also seen growth. Since 2002, support for both having a baby outside of marriage (45% in 2002 to 67% in 2025) and medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos (52% in 2002 to 63% in 2005) has increased.
The percentage of Americans who believe polygamy is morally acceptable has tripled since 2003 – 7% to 21%. More people are also accepting of sex between teenagers (32% in 2013 to 41% in 2025).
Other activities have had more stable levels of approval since Gallup first asked. Since 2012, birth control has only wavered plus or minus two points from 90%. Buying and wearing clothing made from animal fur has stayed near 60%. Gambling has stayed mostly in the 60s. Support for the death penalty has been around 60%.
Approval of doctor-assisted suicide has stayed around 50%. Those who approve of pornography have hovered somewhere around 30% to 40%. The percentage who support cloning animals has stayed mostly in the 30s, while cloning humans and married men and women having an affair have hovered around 10%.
Abortion has been more volatile than the other issues. Those who find it morally acceptable have stayed mostly in the 40s, but it has fluctuated from anywhere between 36% and 54% over the past two decades.
Generational differences
Younger adults, those 18-34, are often more permissive than their elders. Around 3 in 10 (31%) say polygamy is acceptable compared to 10% of those 55 and older. Most (55%) are OK with changing one’s gender, while just 35% of older Americans support the practice.
Those who are under 35 are also more supportive of gay or lesbian relations (+19 percentage points), abortion (+16), sex between an unmarried man and woman (+13), sex between teenagers (+13), pornography (+12), buying or wearing animal fur clothing (+11), cloning animals (+9), cloning humans (+8), having a baby outside of marriage (+7), divorce (+6), suicide (+4), gambling (+3), doctor-assisted suicide (+2) and the death penalty (+2).
Meanwhile, they are less in favor than those 55 and older of human embryonic stem cell research (-2), birth control (-2), married men and women having an affair (-4), and medical testing on animals (-17).
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Aaron Earls is a writer for LifeWay Christian Resources. This article originally appeared at research.lifeway.com.)
