Earlier this year, we asked Americans to compare how leading presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump would perform in 20 apolitical contexts. With Kamala Harris officially replacing Biden on the top of the Democratic ticket, we re-asked these questions, and found that in many areas — including dancing and handling spicy food — Harris both beats Trump and outperforms Biden against him. While Harris leads Trump in most of these apolitical areas, Biden and Trump had the advantage in roughly the same number of areas.
More Americans think Harris would win a cooking competition and a dance-off than think Trump would. Harris is also seen as better than Trump at handling spicy food, and as having a better fashion sense.
Relative to Trump, more think Harris would excel in the personal realm, including that she would be more likely to remember birthdays, keep a secret, and give better relationship advice. Harris is also thought of as being more likely to return a lost wallet and to help a stranger. Harris beats Trump by a smaller margin on the question of who would win against the other at trivia, as well as who would survive longer on a deserted island.
Trump beats Harris by a 29-percentage-point margin in regard to which candidate Americans think would win against the other at arm wrestling. More also think Trump would beat Harris in a poker game, and that he would give better financial advice.
Vast majorities of each candidate's supporters believe that their candidate is more likely to have an advantage in nearly all of the scenarios asked about. But 20% of people who plan to vote for Harris think Trump would win at arm wrestling, and a similar proportion of Harris supporters think Trump would be better than Harris at imitating celebrity voices.
Trump supporters are about equally likely to think Trump and Harris would win a cooking competition or a dance-off against one another.
Harris supporters are about as likely to say that Trump spends more time getting ready in the morning as they are to say Harris does. Half of Trump supporters think Harris spends more time getting ready, while 23% think Trump does.
Related:
- Beyond politics: How Americans compare Biden's and Trump's abilities in other realms
- Harris gains ground against Trump on the handling of key issues
- What Americans think about crime and Kamala Harris' approach to it
— Carl Bialik contributed to this article
See the results for this YouGov poll
Methodology: This poll was conducted online on August 16 - 19, 2024 among 1,143 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult U.S. citizens. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty
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