Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Surveyor, YouGov America’s email newsletter. It has been revised for publication here. Subscribe to The Surveyor for regular updates on YouGov’s polling.
Last week, the tech company Palantir posted to X 22 statements, taken from the book The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, by Palantir employees Alexander Karp & Nicholas Zamiska.
As journalists and social media users discussed the statements — claims about politics, society, and technology — YouGov did what we do best: We put all 22 statements in a poll and asked Americans whether they agree or disagree with each. We didn’t identify the statements as coming from Palantir, or provide any additional context.
Our poll found more Americans agree than disagree with almost all of Palantir’s 22 statements, though considerable numbers of Americans aren’t sure whether they agree or disagree. (Asking if people agree or disagree is a useful framework for statements such as Palantir’s and allow for comparing between statements, but because of a phenomenon known as “acquiescence bias,” it can often find higher levels of support than other question formats. )
Some of the 22 statements are broadly popular, with 11 supported by 50% or more of Americans. For example, 62% of Americans strongly or somewhat agree, and only 14% disagree, with the statement that:
If a U.S. Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software. We should as a country be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm’s way.
