Diet/Gambling/Movies

Survey Details: Conducted February-March 2006
File Release Date: 13 November 2007

Survey Details: Conducted February-March 2006 File Release Date: 13 November 2007

As economists and politicians debate whether there is less mobility in the U.S. now than in the past, a new Pew survey finds that many among the public are seeing less progress in their own lives.

A modest backlash in attitudes towards legalized gambling has taken hold among an American public that spends more money on more forms of legal gambling now than at any time in the nation's history.

The start of the summer blockbuster movie season has Hollywood hoping for the usual stampede to the theaters, but now more than ever, the place that most Americans would rather watch movies is under their own roof.

The idea that each generation of children will grow up to be better off than the one that preceded it has always been a part of the American dream.

At a time when the nation's waistline has expanded to record girth, about two-thirds of American adults are either dieting, exercising or doing both. But by their own reckoning, they don't have much to show for their efforts.

Americans are eating more but enjoying it less. Just 39% of adults say they enjoy eating "a great deal," down from the 48% who said the same in a Gallup survey in 1989.

Americans believe their fellow Americans have gotten fat. They consider this a serious national problem. But when they think about weight, they appear to use different scales for different people.

These edicts represent the collective judgment of the American public when asked to assess the moral dimensions of different kinds of behaviors.