CHANGING MORALITY: THE TWO AMERICAS A TIME-Louis Harris Poll

IN 1969, Americans are more concerned than ever before about the problems of morals and ethics. The concern ranges over the whole spectrum of society, from student violence and changing sex habits to venality among public officials and conflicts of interest in the business world. In his latest survey for TIME, Louis Harris has undertaken a study of moral attitudes among Americans in an effort to illuminate the changing U.S. moral climate. The results produce ample evidence that, despite considerable indignation at what they believe to be unjust, Americans in general are far more permissive about morals than they were only a few years ago.

Harris finds three catalysts for the "chemistry of change" that has affected the U.S. moral climate. Americans—especially black Americans—are increasingly alienated from traditional values and systems. At the same time, more people have come to share a greater compassion for the problems of others. Finally, affluence, a more mobile society and higher educational levels have combined to create an openness toward moral experimentation that, as Harris notes, has "never before been dreamed of in any society in the world's history."

This change in morality is most prominently approved by those in the upper reaches of achievement: professional men and women, the college-educated, the prosperous citizens of suburbia. They are joined by young people under 30 and, in many instances, by the blacks. The moral conservatives, those who still cling tightly to the old verities, are mainly to be found among those over 50 and in the lower-income, less-educated sectors, especially in small towns. In the matter of morality, there are virtually two Americas.

Men and women, young and old, professionals and laborers, whites and blacks, Christians and Jews, all agree by lopsided majorities that morality in the U.S. has declined over the past ten years. Nationwide, 67% of Harris' sampling of 1,600 representative Americans take that view, while only 11% believe that mora1 standards have risen. Those who feel that morality has improved point to increased concern for racial and social justice and to widespread revulsion against the war in Viet Nam. The majority that finds a decline in standards attributes the trend more than anything else to increased emphasis on sex, crime and violence in newspapers, magazines, books, TV and films. Another often cited cause is that "people are more materialistic."

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