Thirteen percent (13%) of Registered Voters discuss politics with family and friends every day or nearly every day. A Political IQ national survey found that twice as many–27%– rarely or never discuss the topic.
Overall, 37% discuss politics on most days, 20% about once a week, and 41% less than once a week.
The survey, conducted by Scott Rasmussen, found that there was little difference between Trump and Biden voters when it comes to discussing politics. Forty-three percent (43%) of Trump supporters talk politics more than once a week. So do 42% of Biden voters. Those who voted for some other candidate or chose not to vote are less interested in talking politics.
Other data from the survey shows that 85% of Trump voters say their friends and neighbors knew how they voted. Eighty-five percent (85%) of Biden supporters said the same.
Among those whose family and friends did not know how they would vote, 48% said the reason is that voting is a private matter. Another 25% said it’s because they rarely discuss politics and 11% because they decided at the last minute. However, 8% said they kept their voting decision from family and friends because they were afraid how others might react.
Fear of how others react was more common among Trump supporters than Biden voters. It’s not a huge gap, but could suggest that Shy Trump voters accounted for understating the president’s support by about a single percentage point.
Biden supporters were far more likely than Trump voters to say they kept it secret because they rarely discussed politics.
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Note: Neither Scott Rasmussen, ScottRasmussen.com, nor RMG Research, Inc. have any affiliation with Rasmussen Reports. While Scott Rasmussen founded that firm, he left more than seven years ago and has had no involvement since that time.
Methodology
The survey of 1,200 Registered Voters was conducted by Scott Rasmussen using a mixed mode approach from November 5-7, 2020. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Most respondents were contacted online or via text while 168 were contacted using automated phone polling techniques. Online respondents were selected from a list of Registered Voters and through a process of Random Digital Engagement. Certain quotas were applied to the larger sample and lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of Registered Voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population. The sample included 1,052 respondents who say they voted in Election 2020. Of that group, 51% voted for Joe Biden and 46% for Donald Trump.
