Intern: Survey Center on American Life

In a news story about Harvey Weinstein’s trial for sexual assault, New York Times reporter Hurubie Meko noted the difference between the movie mogul’s first trial in 2020 and the ongoing one in the same courthouse. The 2020 courtroom was “overflowing with reporters prepared to broadcast every moment of his trial to an avid audience.” Now, she wrote, “[n]o cameras wait to catch a glimpse of his arrival. A cordoned-off press area in front of the courthouse sits empty.” Does the lack of attention represent backsliding or gender regression in terms of public concern about sexual harassment or assault, as some have suggested? Is #MeToo finished? What do the polls say?I’m not aware of any new public polling on the movement that came to prominence in 2017, but there are many polls from recent years that can point us to some answers. The allegations in late 2017 of harassment and assault across many industries were a public wake-up call with a high level of pollster attention. A 2017 Economist/YouGov poll found that 86% of women and 75% of men believed sexual harassment was a very or somewhat serious problem. In an Ipsos/NPR poll from 2017, 59% of women said they had experienced harassment

Whom do you trust when it matters? A surprising number of polls suggest that the answer is not experts, but those closest to us: friends and family. Last week, Gallup released a new poll on the sources Americans turn to for advice about their finances. Even in this complex area—one that is especially sensitive right now given uncertainty about the economy’s trajectory—Americans turned to sources close to home first. Forty-three percent said they asked friends and family for financial information and advice, followed closely by financial advisers and planners (41%), and financial institutions (36%). Twenty percent chose podcasts and separately, social media, books, and TV or radio programs.Turning to friends and family members for help with finances isn’t a new phenomenon. In 1982, when asked by the Roper Organization about whom they would turn for advice about ways of saving or investing money, the top source was family and friends

Rising student loan defaults could reduce consumer spending by as much as $63 billion a year, according to Bloomberg Economics. After five years of there being no “involuntary collections” on defaulted loans, the U.S. Department of Education is set to restart collections and return the student loan system to where it was before the pandemic, Bloomberg reported Friday (May 2). This will mark the first time some younger student loan borrowers have been required to make payments, and it will end some other student loan borrowers’ hopes that the debt would be forgiven, according to the report