WASHINGTON — An Associated Press-GfK poll found that Americans’ sense of duty has slipped since a similar survey three decades ago. Civic virtues such as staying informed or serving on a jury don’t seem as important as they once did — especially among the young.
The findings fit with research that’s been worrying many experts who study civic engagement or advocate for teaching more about civics in school.
“I don’t see any recovery,” said Rutgers University professor Cliff Zukin. “The people who were 40 two decades ago aren’t as engaged as the people who were 60 two decades ago. This generational slippage tends to continue.”
Citizenship
Americans’ commitment to some traditional obligations of citizenship has slipped. The poll repeated questions asked in 1984 about six civic-minded activities: voting, volunteering, serving on a jury, reporting crime, knowing English and keeping informed about news and public issues.
Of the six, only voting and volunteering were embraced about as strongly as three decades ago.
Obligation
Despite some sliding, Americans still think U.S. citizenship carries some duties as well as rights.
About nine of 10 say reporting a crime you witness, voting in elections, knowing English and serving on a jury are at least “somewhat important” obligations.
And each of those is still rated “very important” by a majority. It’s just that, except in the case of voting, those majorities have slipped by an average of about 13 percentage points.
The young
In every category except volunteering, adults younger than 30 were less likely than their elders to see any obligation and felt less obliged than young people of the past. In 2014 about a fourth of them said there’s no duty to keep informed, volunteer or speak English.
Volunteering
Compared with the 1984 survey, Americans’ sense of obligation fell across every category and age, save one. Today’s young people are more likely than their parents to consider giving time for community service “very important.”
Nineteen percent said that three decades ago; 29 percent think so now.
“That’s partly the fact that we have built up our institutions for volunteering,” said Peter Levine, associate dean for research at Tufts’ Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. “Something like 30 percent of high schools have service learning programs. They didn’t have that in the 1980s.”
Information
Americans don’t feel much pressure to keep up with news and public issues anymore. Only 37 percent think that’s very important, down from a majority — 56 percent — in 1984.
In fact, a fifth say there’s no obligation at all to stay fully informed.
The young are even less likely to feel citizens ought to know what’s going on, despite having unprecedented amounts of information at their fingertips.
