Last week there was a lot of brouhaha about a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) poll showing that Americans were less enthused about some pretty core principles and values, such as patriotism and hard work. Problem is, America’s apparent moral decline was based on only two polls, one in 1998 and one in 2023. That’s not enough data to declare a trend.

So I did some digging. Sure enough, there was a 1976-77 poll that asked the same questions - its results were actually provided on a WSJ document that summarized responses to the 1998 poll. Considering the 1976-77 poll results along with those for 1998 and 2023, can you spot the trend in, say, patriotism?

Me neither. How about the value of hard work - see a trend?

Me neither. However, the World Values Survey (WVS) definitely shows a trend in how American parents view hard work:

Also per the WVS “wave” of surveys from 2017-2022, most Americans agree that “in the long run hard work usually brings a better life”, as opposed to “hard work doesn't generally bring success - it's more a matter of luck and connections”.  Here’s their chart:

Note that the above chart implies that most of the survey respondents also believe that luck and connections play some role in life’s outcomes; otherwise, considerably more would have endorsed option 1. As with many things, what we value and what we believe is often a matter of degree and context.