This week, we're spotlighting surveys about laundry, the voting age, the driving age, the drinking age, hated foods, semaglutide drugs, Zohran Mandami, Sydney Sweeney, Gaza, crime, fingernails, and pet names.
How Americans wash their clothes
Let's kick things off this week with something dirty: Americans' laundry.
Most Americans say they always or usually do their own laundry. Women, single people, people from lower-income households, and older Americans are more likely than other groups to do their own laundry.
There's a particularly stark gender difference among people who are married. 51% of married women say they always do their own laundry, compared to 21% of married men. The difference is much smaller among people who aren't married: Within this group, 71% of women and 62% of men always do their own laundry.
While most Americans do their own laundry, 45% say someone else at least occasionally washes their clothes. Among those people, 65% say a spouse or partner sometimes washes their clothes, while 18% say a parent or guardian does. 7% have a child sometimes do their laundry, and 4% say a roommate or a friend does. 8% sometimes have their laundry done by a commercial service, including 18% of people who live in cities and sometimes have someone else do their laundry.
Younger Americans are more likely to have mom or dad wash their clothes: 25% of adults under 30 say a parent or guardian sometimes does their laundry, compared to 8% of those 30 to 44, 2% of those 45 to 64, and (unsurprisingly) 0% of those 65 or older. 60% of married Americans say their spouse sometimes does their laundry.
Getting ripe
Some of those clothes are getting a little ripe by the time Americans — or their spouse or parent — wash them. Majorities of Americans say they usually wear jeans, other pants, and sweaters more than once between washes, and just under half say they re-wear T-shirts. 80% of Americans say they wash their underwear after every use.
Men are more likely than women to say they re-wear each of these articles of clothing between washes.
Most Americans say they use a clothes dryer to dry their clothes, either entirely (41%) or mostly (34%). Just 7% say they air-dry all their clothes.
Conservatives and older Americans are more likely than other groups to entirely or mostly use a dryer.
Once that laundry is done, just over one-third of Americans say they put away the clean clothes right away. Another 30% say they put clothes away within a few hours. 31% say they don't put the clothes away for a day or more, including 11% who say it's usually two to six days before the clothes are put away, and 4% who usually take a week or more.
Younger Americans are less likely than older Americans to put their clothes away immediately. Men and women are equally likely (35% vs. 35%) to say they put their clothes away right away.
See the full data from this poll about laundry here.
Charting opinions
Most Americans don’t want to lower the voting age, but they do want younger presidents
Americans generally think that 18 is the right age to start voting. Most (56%) Americans say 18 should be the minimum age for voting in federal elections. This has been the voting age across the country since the 26th Amendment was ratified in 1971. Before that, many states did not allow citizens under 21 to vote. Few Americans would like to go back to those days: Only 19% of Americans would set a minimum voting age above 18. At the same time, few would like to change in the other direction: Only 25% of Americans would set a voting age below 18 or do away with the minimum voting age altogether. (Alexander Rossell Hayes)
Many Americans would like to raise the driving age and lower the drinking age
Younger Americans are more likely than older Americans to support lowering the drinking age: 61% of adults under 30 support a lower drinking age. And this isn’t just driven by adults under 21 who aren't yet legally allowed to drink: 60% of 21- to 29-year-olds support lowering the drinking age. Only 36% of Americans 30 and older say the same. (Alexander Rossell Hayes)
Ranking Americans' most hated foods
Men are more likely than women to dislike or hate several vegetables, including brussels sprouts, cauliflower, spinach, and broccoli. Women, on the other hand, are more averse than men to several forms of seafood, including anchovies, sardines, squid, oysters, caviar, and sushi. They are also more likely than men to hate or dislike several other protein-rich foods, including liver, chitterlings, and pork. On average, the 40 foods on the list are hated or disliked by 4 percentage points more women than men. (Taylor Orth and Carl Bialik)
The top words Americans use to describe Zohran Mamdani — from a list of 15 adjectives offered in the poll — are progressive (34%), charismatic (23%), and radical (23%). The words that the largest shares of Americans choose to describe Andrew Cuomo — from the same list — are corrupt (36%), out-of-touch (30%), and divisive (18%). These are also the words that Americans are most likely to use to describe Eric Adams: corrupt (28%), out-of-touch (18%), and divisive (14%). (Jamie Ballard)
Awareness of semaglutide drugs is growing quickly among Americans
80% of Americans have heard at least a little about a kind of semaglutide, which is sold under the brand names Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus. Awareness of semaglutide has gradually grown in the last few years, from 60% in March 2023 to 70% in March 2024 to 80% now. The share who have heard a lot about it has nearly doubled, to 41% from 23% in March 2023. (Jamie Ballard)
Quick takes
Sydney Sweeney: Americans are more likely to say the wordplay in a recent American Eagle ad with the tagline "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans" is appropriate than inappropriate (52% vs. 16%), including among Democrats (46% vs. 24%), Independents (49% vs. 14%), and Republicans (64% vs. 10%)
Fingernails: A majority of Americans clip their fingernails either once a week (24%) or every two weeks (31%). 5% clip them more than once a week, while 18% clip them once a month, 8% less than once a month, and 5% never
Crime: 12% of Americans are very worried that they or a member of their family will be a victim of a violent crime, while 32% are somewhat worried, 35% not too worried, and 13% not at all worried
Gaza: Americans overwhelmingly say there is a hunger crisis in Gaza: 68% say yes and 5% say no
Pet names: The pet names Americans are most likely to have used to refer to a romantic partner are "babe" (20%), "honey" (13%), and "baby" (10%)
Elsewhere
Polling partnerships
CBS + YouGov on the economy
Yahoo News + YouGov on Jeffrey Epstein, Elon Musk, and Stephen Colbert
The Times + YouGov on 200 days of Trump's second term
The Economist + YouGov on Trump's continuing slump, the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, the 2016 election, cuts to environmental agencies, and Trump's tariffs
Polling abroad
Polling in the press
Trump is remaking the global trade system even as some see trouble ahead (Washington Post)
How Trump's poll numbers on immigration have shifted as he has enacted his agenda (NBC News)
Many Americans favor Jeffries, Mamdani, Lander among New York politicians: Survey (The Hill)
Gen Z doesn’t need your approval, but it does need good advice. My new column, Dollar Signs, is here to help. (MarketWatch)
Homeowner stunned over HOA's sudden demand about longstanding property feature: 'It's probably not as bad as you think' (The Cool Down)
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Carl Bialik contributed to this newsletter.