What does everyone agree on?

Around four years ago at GWI, we started running a series of international surveys looking at thoughts and feelings around the emerging novel coronavirus (as it was then called). This evolved into GWI Zeitgeist, our monthly survey into trending and hot-button issues around the world.?

Over time, this has given us a really rich archive of survey data which, if you zoom out a bit, gives some really profound insights into where people have the most shared consensus.?

We can do this by focusing on questions that use a Likert scale methodology – those questions that ask about your level of agreement, confidence, or concern with something (there are many other examples, but they’re probably the most common ones).

In this article, I’ve pulled out the survey questions and topics that have produced the highest agreement score across that entire four-year period, giving a unique window into the UK’s collective mindset.??

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70% think people should moderate social media platforms, not automated programs.

70% think that a universal basic income (UBI) would support people impacted by unemployment.

70% of people are trying to eat more healthily.?

70% are concerned that AI tools can easily be used for unethical purposes.

In August 2023, 70% felt that AR/VR technology was too expensive. Many consumers think it’s cool, but many more just can’t afford it.

70% think that brands should stop working with celebrities immediately if they do something offensive.

71% would trust AI-generated educational content (trust in AI-generated medical or financial advice is a lot lower).

71% think that self-service checkouts are easy to use. Self-service checkouts are one of the best examples you have where there is a big gap between the gripes people might make public (especially in newspapers), vs their actual opinion they disclose in the more private context of a survey.

In August 2020, 71% felt they were able to cope with another lockdown if needed (as it turned out they’d have to, twice).

71% are concerned about the potential impact of climate change in the UK.?

72% think licensed products should accurately represent the brand or franchise it's associated with.?

In November 2022, as the National Grid warned that power cuts might happen in the event of a particularly bad winter, 72% felt confident they knew what to do in the event that one happened.

In January 2022, 72% said they would be willing to get an annual Covid-19 booster jab if needed.

72% think brands should be doing more to address environmental issues.

In April 2023, 73% thought it was easier to follow women’s sports than it was 5 years ago.?

73% are concerned about the global impact of climate change.

74% think banks should provide support for customers’ financial wellbeing.?

75% think the government should do more to regulate online misinformation. This isn’t just surprisingly high (to me at least), but it’s also one of the topics where people in the UK have the most different opinions to those in the US (where only 55% agree). The US, of course, has free speech legally protected, the UK does not. We didn’t ask about it specifically, but the Online Safety Act is much more welcomed here than it is on the other side of the pond.?

75% want to do work that is meaningful.?

75% are more likely to use a self-service checkout when purchasing a small number of items.?

75% are confident about the security of their work devices.

78% find memes funny. Next time you share one, bear in mind that 1 in 5 people are unlikely to get the joke.

81% think that countries around the world need to come together to fight climate change. I am continually surprised by how much consensus there is around climate change. Opinions differ on the exact tactics, sure, and the relative merits of specific policies, like net zero by a certain date. But as someone who grew up when the media too frequently gave airtime to outright climate change deniers, this one is hard for me to get my head around. It’s not the 50/50 issue that the news has sometimes made it out to be in the past.

In August 2020, 82% supported making people quarantine when returning home from abroad. As a reminder, at this time the UK’s policy was that anyone arriving at/returning to the UK was required to self-isolate at a fixed address for 14 days, but we only introduced that policy in June (!).

In October 2020, 82% understood the government guidelines on Covid-19. This one again feels quite surprising, as the government was often criticized that the messaging after the initial “Stay At Home” stage was unclear.

83% feel confident about making decisions on where to invest on their own. In fairness, the majority of this is “somewhat” confident people, not “extremely”. It almost goes without saying that men are much more confident in their own abilities.

85% want to do work that makes them happy. This feels patronizingly obvious, but it’s not actually the biggest consensus we’ve ever had. That honour goes to…

86% think that AI-generated content should be labeled as such. A topical twist! This has the most consensus of pretty much everything we’ve ever asked in the UK. More platforms are starting to bring in these sorts of measures, and to at least investigate watermarking of AI-generated content, but it really underlines how important it is for consumers' peace of nmind.

86% as the highest consensus – in some ways, it feels like a premature end. Because this is the other lesson of examining data like this – no topic ever gets 100% agreement. In fact, no topic ever seems to reach 90%. There is a lesson here in respecting the diversity of feelings and opinions across the country. In many ways, the title of this article is a misnomer. There is nothing that everyone agrees on. If you take 10 British people at random, and put them in a room, the chances are there will always be at least 1 person with a different opinion.?