American attitudes toward political, activist, and extremist groups

Taylor OrthDirector of Survey Data Journalism
October 07, 2022, 5:12 PM GMT+0

Recent polling by YouGov compares Americans' attitudes toward a wide range of political, activist, and extremist groups in the U.S. Below, we present findings on the favorability of these groups among U.S. adult citizens, as well as by political party and gender. Among the most negatively viewed groups are the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the Aryan Brotherhood, the Proud Boys, and Antifa. Opinion is almost evenly divided on Black Lives Matter and the National Rifle Association (NRA). More have a favorable than unfavorable opinion of the AARP, the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, All Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, the ACLU, the Anti-Defamation League, and PETA.

Democrats and Republicans share a disdain for the KKK and the Aryan Brotherhood — but little else, with especially wide gaps on Black Lives Matter, the NRA, and Planned Parenthood.

Divides by gender are much smaller than by party, though women overall feel favorably toward Planned Parenthood while men are neutral.

— Doug Rivers, Carl Bialik, and Linley Sanders contributed to this article

See crosstabs and toplines for this poll.

Methodology: This U.S. News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,000 U.S. adult citizens interviewed online from September 14 - 19, 2022. This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the 2018 American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as 2016 and 2020 Presidential votes (or non-votes). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. citizens. The margin of error is approximately 3% for the entire sample.

Image: Getty (Spencer Platt)