Most Americans aren't seeing positive news about the economy

The Ipsos Consumer Tracker asks Americans questions about culture, the economy and the forces that shape our lives. Here's one thing we learned this week.

Why we asked: News is in the news lately. For one thing, there is a new discussion about how accurate government collection and reporting of data is, which is important because those reports move markets. Earlier in the year we asked about if people were generally seeing positive or negative economic news. When asked if the tone of economic news they saw (in April) was mostly positive, Republicans were twice as likely to say yes as Democrats. But what about all the other areas of news? Were those similarly bubbled?

What we found: The splits on economic news are still striking. Fewer Republicans today say they see positive economic news (note, we asked the question differently here) but they are three times as likely to say see positive news (26%) than Democrats (9%). And Democrats are twice as likely to see negative news (70%) as Republicans (37%). The balance is people reporting they see neutral news or don’t know. 

That said, there’s very little split in terms of the news about crime rates (also in the news): Few from either party (~10%) see positive news and four times that many see negative news. On AI, Republicans are somewhat more likely to say they see positive news (28%) than Democrats (18%). Same on weather and climate (24% to 9%). The only topic both sides report seeing more positive news than negative news is their local sports teams.  

There’s a lot to unpack here, or perhaps several doctoral theses to write about the impacts of negative news on our psyche and our reality as we react to the barrage of downer headlines. 

More insights from this wave of the Ipsos Consumer Tracker:

Affluent Americans more likely to have increased their net worth this year

Are electronics the new luxury?

The Ipsos Vibe Check: Here's how Americans feel about the government this week