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Americans More Positive than Europeans
Americans in a new Harris Poll appear much more optimistic than Europeans did in a similar poll in early 2004. US adults gave much more positive views of improvements in the last five years, and expectations for the future, whether discussing their personal lives, employment, finances, or their country's economy.
These differences between the United States and Europe apply not only to Europe as a whole but to comparisons with all of the larger, and most of the smaller, European countries. It should be noted, however, that the surveys were conducted 9 months apart, which may have an effect on levels of optimism - see below for dates.
The differences between American and European perceptions and expectations for 'the next twelve months' include:- In the US, a 47% plurality expected 'life in general' would be better (with 37% expecting no change). This compares with 31% of Europeans expecting their lives would be better.
- When it comes to expectations for their economies, 29% of Americans but only 17% of Europeans expected improvement, while 44% of Europeans, compared to 33% of Americans, expected their economies would get worse.
- Only 21% of Europeans, compared to 38% of Americans, expected the financial situation of their households would get better; 24% of Europeans expected their financial situation would get worse, compared to only 15% of Americans.
- While Americans were split 29 to 31% between those who thought the employment situation would get better or worse (with 29% saying it would remain the same), almost a 3-to-1 plurality (48% to 15%) of Europeans thought it would get worse.
Similar differences were found when the questions looked 5 years back or 5 years into the future:- Americans were more likely than Europeans to believe that their present situation had improved over the last 5 years (by 45% to 31%); they were less likely to say that their situation had become worse or stayed the same (53% compared to 67%).
- Americans were much more likely (by 55% to 38%) to believe that their personal situation would improve over the next 5 years, and less likely than Europeans to think it would get worse (11% compared to 17%).
All of these differences - with Americans being more positive and optimistic - were found not just with the averages for the 25 members of the European Union, but also with the five largest EU countries - Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom.
In general, Germany was the most negative or pessimistic of these countries and Britain tended to be somewhat more optimistic. But British optimism was below American optimism on all measures.
Harris has two hypotheses to explain the differences. One is that the American economy has been growing faster than the European economy for most of the last 15 years or longer. Another is that Americans - perhaps because of their history, their natural self-confidence, and their faster economic growth over more than 200 years - are inherently more optimistic than Europeans. The first hypothesis suggests a short-term phenomenon, the latter suggests a fundamental difference between the old world and new. There is probably some validity in both of them.
Harris Interactive(r) surveyed 2,092 American adults online between December 8 and 15 2004, and the results were compared with those of a Eurobarometer survey of the 25 countries of the European Union, conducted in February and March 2004.
Harris Interactive's home page can be found at www.harrisinteractive.com
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