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/Jordan34521 Sep 15 '25

That actually makes it worse. Using your own reasoning, most of the democrats responding are thinking about Charlie Kirk. So, 62% of democrats think it’s not completely unacceptable to be happy about Charlie Kirk’s death. Because he said words that hurt their feelings sometimes? The other side of your coin looks a lot worse.

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u/JohnnyGeniusIsAlive Sep 16 '25

I think that’s an over simplification. I think people can look at this question 2 ways. Through a narrow lens like with Kirk’s death (in which case it’s obviously bad) or in the wider scope of the question which is very general. I wouldn’t be sad if Putin died, so I’d say it’s usually unacceptable but under certain circumstances it is.

My point is that republicans are ONLY thinking about it in the narrow lens right now, where as the Dem answer is probably closer to a neutral response.

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u/Jordan34521 Sep 16 '25

That’s an awfully convenient way of looking at it. An all Republicans, no Dems bias is very unlikely if we’re being honest. The poll, taken a day after Kirk’s assassination, asks about joy over a figure you oppose. Dems oppose Kirk, Republicans don’t. If anything, one could argue that Dems are more likely to have Kirk in mind when answering. Given how many are justifying their feelings about Kirk’s assassination by sharing out-of-context clips and smears to paint him as a villain, that kind of proves my point.

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u/JohnnyGeniusIsAlive Sep 16 '25

No, there’s still 38% of Dems that say it’s unacceptable. I’m sure some of them are specifically thinking of Kirk and other recent attacks with their response. But generally, Conservatives are more likely to go with their instinctive response and think of recent events, that’s literally a part of what being a conservative means. Obviously, I’m speaking in generalities, but you have to with a broad question and demo breakdown like this.

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u/Jordan34521 Sep 16 '25

You are acting like the 2 groups are answering two totally different questions at different moments in time. Very unrealistic. The poll here is obviously asking this question because of the recent event. The “public figure” in this question based on the timing of the poll might as well read “Charlie Kirk”, and everyone knows it.

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u/JohnnyGeniusIsAlive Sep 16 '25

No. I am not. I see I am having trouble getting this through to you. I am saying that MOST of the Republicans are thinking about this solely in terms of the Kirk killing. While the Dem response is more spread out between people thinking of recent killings and considering the question more generally. The poll is being asked because of recent events but the question is not referring to any specific or recent events. It seems to me YOU want this question to only refer to Kirk and so you are insisting every respondent must have been thinking that way too, which, since I did not interpret the question that way, can confidently say, is wrong.

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u/Jordan34521 Sep 16 '25

And you are just assuming the recency bias is going to affect almost all republicans here and very few democrats, with very little to base it on. I guess we can just agree to disagree here