A new Gallup poll found that Americans consider birth control, divorce, and premarital sex as morally acceptable, while polygamy, cloning humans, and extramarital affairs were least morally acceptable to them.
Even gambling was largely acceptable to Americans, as well as pregnancy out of wedlock, gay and lesbian relationships, the death penalty, embryonic stem cell research, and buying and wearing animal fur.
This year's survey included 19 issues, out of which 11 were considered morally acceptable by majority votes.
A previous Gallup poll from last year said that Americans have continued to shift towards the left in terms of social stances in the last 15 years, and the number of issues deemed morally acceptable have increased.
"Americans are more likely now than in the early 2000s to find a variety of behaviors morally acceptable, including gay and lesbian relations, having a baby outside of marriage and sex between an unmarried man and woman. Moral acceptability of many of these issues is now at a record-high level," a report from May 2015 said.
The issues were clubbed under categories of "highly acceptable," "largely acceptable," "contentious," "largely unacceptable," and "highly unacceptable," on the basis of the number of votes accepting them as morally good.
Birth control was favored by most Americans (89 percent), making it a highly acceptable choice. Divorce came next with as many as 72 percent approving it. This was followed by acceptance of premarital sex (67 percent), gambling (67 percent), having a baby outside of marriage (62 percent).
Issues regarded as contentious received between 40 percent to 55 percent approval ratings. Medical testing on animals (53 percent), Physician-assisted suicide (53 percent), and abortion (43 percent) were rather contentious options for Americans.
Largely unacceptable issues were sex between teenagers (37 percent), pornography (34 percent), and cloning animals (34 percent).
Extramarital affair was most unacceptable to Americans (10 percent), followed by human cloning (13 percent), and polygamy (14 percent). Only 18 percent of the Americans thought suicide was morally acceptable.
The poll also showed some major difference of opinion between participants leaning towards the Democratic and Republican parties.
As many as 78 percent of Democrats viewed premarital sex between a man and woman as morally acceptable as compared to 54 percent of Republicans. Divorce was also viewed more favorably by Democrats (83 percent) as compared to Republicans (67 percent), as was gambling which got 74 percent approval ratings from Democrats and 63 percent from Republicans.
Having a baby outside marriage was also viewed favorably by Democrats (73 percent), but not so much by Republicans (49 percent). About 73 percent of Democrats approved embryonic stem cell research, but only 44 percent of Republicans thought it was acceptable.
Polygamy was also slightly more approved by Democrats (18 percent) than by Republicans (10 percent). About 25 percent of Democrats thought that suicide was morally fine, but only 9 percent of Republicans thought so.
On the other hand, Democrats were more concerned about animal rights than Republicans. Almost 71 percent of Republicans thought that buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur was morally acceptable, but only 45 percent of the Democrats approved of it.
Medical testing on animals was also considered morally acceptable by more Republicans (64 percent) than Democrats (43 percent).
Republicans (74 percent) also favored death penalty more than Democrats (47 percent).
Gallup conducted the poll by interviewing 1,025 adults over telephone between May 4 and 8, 2016. They participants of the survey were chosen randomly from all 50 states in the US, and were above 18 years of age.
