Civility In America And Its Tie To Violence

With the news about El Paso, Dayton, and everything else happening, I can’t not think about our ongoing research on Civility in America. We have been surveying the topic with Powell Tate and KRC Research since 2010 and as the architect of this groundbreaking research, I can’t help but think about the answers to this one question we asked. We asked Americans at the beginning of the year what the consequences of all this incivility was. Eight in 10 or more point to dangerously high risks. Almost nine in 10 respondents identify serious ramifications from incivility, including cyberbullying (89%), harassment, violence and hate crimes (88%, equally), intimidation and threats, intolerance, and people feeling less safe in public places (87%, equally). They sure got the hate crimes perception right.

What particularly also astounds me was how unsafe people were already feeling from the scourge of incivility facing our nation and now with these shootings, I plainly see that the research picked up on this fear of public spaces. And that fear is just spreading as I read that some countries are warning their citizens about visiting the United States because of gun violence.

Our research does offer solutions so take a look at the report. Americans are willing to take some personal responsibility but we have a long way to go.