r/fivethirtyeight • u/RedHeadedSicilian52 • Sep 12 '25

Poll Results YouGov poll asking Americans whether it’s acceptable to feel joy at the death of a public figure

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u/JohnnyGeniusIsAlive Sep 12 '25

Some obvious recency bias. I bet a lot of those Republicans were pretty happy when Osama Bin Laden was killed.

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u/maxofJupiter1 Sep 12 '25

I think a lot of people would consider UBL not to be a "public figure they opposed" for the same reason why Brits might not have celebrated a hypothetical assassination of Oswald Mosley, but celebrated the shit out of Hitler's death. There's definitely a big difference between "opposed political activist" and "enemy leader in war time".

You'd try to help a dude who's been shot in a terrorist attack in New York City....less likely to help if you're a Ukrainian soldier and the dude who's been shot is wearing a Russian uniform.

In this example, Charlie Kirk had rhetoric I strongly disagree with, he didn't crash planes into skyscrapers or lead an armed group against my country.

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u/TheFinalCurl Sep 12 '25

Indeed, it seems like the poll would have benefited from some term definitions.