What's your favorite dinosaur? Many Americans don't have one
Surveys about dinosaurs, monogamy, the World Cup, AI, Donald Trump, Pope Leo XIV, and MAGA.
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The triceratops is the best dinosaur.
I recognize that may be a controversial statement, despite the triceratops’ ideal blend of distinctive appearance, toughness, and cuteness. Only 6% of Americans agree with me, according to a recent YouGov poll, with many preferring inferior dinosaur species such as brontosaurus, velociraptor, pterodactyl (not even a dinosaur), and, of course, T. rex. But more bewildering to me than all the Tyrannosaurus rex fans out there is that nearly 40% of Americans don’t have a favorite dinosaur at all.
But our poll provides some answers — at least to the question of why I like dinosaurs, and why so many other people just don’t care. I was born in the 1980s and grew up in the 1990s, a period when the dinosaur renaissance peaked with the 1993 release of Jurassic Park. I didn’t actually see Jurassic Park at the time, but I didn’t have to — dinosaurs were ubiquitous for ‘90s kids, from VHS copies of The Land Before Time to the evocative illustrations in James Gurney’s Dinotopia to T. Rexes roaring on Happy Meal cups.
YouGov’s polling shows that 30- to 44-year-olds are more likely than other adults to say they like or love dinosaurs: 58% say so, compared to 48% of those under 30, 46% of 45- to 64-year olds, and 34% of those 65 and older. Men and college graduates are more likely to like dinosaurs than are women and non-graduates. Liberals and those who say religion isn’t important in their life are more likely to view dinosaurs positively than are moderates, conservatives, and Americans who are more religious.
This isn’t to say that many people dislike dinosaurs. Only 3% of Americans say they dislike or hate dinosaurs. Instead, a plurality (47%) of Americans say they neither like nor dislike dinosaurs, while another 47% say they either like (17%) or love (30%) dinosaurs.
More Americans say they liked or loved dinosaurs as kids than say they like or love them now (56% vs. 47%). 60% of adults under 30, 65% of 30- to 44-year-olds, and 62% of 45- to 64-year-olds say they liked or loved dinosaurs as kids — but only 34% of Americans 65 and older did.
Among Americans who like or love dinosaurs, 81% say they have a favorite dinosaur, almost twice the share of those who neither like nor dislike dinosaurs who have a favorite (44%).
Tyrannosaurus rex is the most common favorite dinosaur, among dinosaur fans and non-fans alike: 24% of adults, 29% of those who like or love dinosaurs, and 19% of those who are neutral about dinosaurs say T. rex is their favorite.
Other common favorite dinosaurs include brontosaurus (7% of Americans), my beloved triceratops (6%), pterodactyls (5%), velociraptors (5%), and stegosaurus (4%). (We included two dinosaur-like reptiles — pterodactyls and plesiosaurs — as options alongside actual dinosaur species.) 6% of Americans say another type of dinosaur is their favorite.
We asked respondents how many dinosaurs they thought they could name off the top of their head. 9% of Americans think they couldn’t name any, while 8% say they could name one, 13% two, 19% three, 13% four, and 25% five or more. 7% of Americans say they could name 10 or more types of dinosaurs.
Then we put these claims to the test and asked those respondents who said they could name at least one dinosaur to name as many dinosaurs as they could. We had an AI agent classify the results, with instructions to be generous about misspellings.
Overall, 84% named fewer dinosaurs than they thought they would, while 15% named the same number they predicted, and only 2% named more. Only 16% named five or more types of dinosaurs, fewer than the 25% who said they could. 16% who said they could name one dinosaur didn’t name any.
YouGov also asked Americans whether they had seen any of 11 dinosaur-themed movies. Jurassic Park topped the list, with 77% of Americans saying they have seen it, followed by King Kong (63%), Jurassic World (58%), The Land Before Time (49%), Journey to the Center of the Earth (40%), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (38%), and Land of the Lost (33%). Only 7% of Americans said they hadn’t seen any of the 11 dinosaur movies.
Let us know in the comments — which is your favorite dinosaur? Or if you don’t have one, this Millennial would be fascinated to know your thoughts as to why!
(Long-time subscribers may remember reading about YouGov’s dinosaur polling in the past. I wanted to make sure that 2024 poll’s results replicated — sadly, they do — and add new questions.)
Charting opinions
Are humans monogamous by nature? Here’s what Americans think
Only 7% believe all humans are monogamous by nature and 24% think most humans are monogamous by nature. 16% say about half of humans are monogamous by nature, 12% say most humans are not monogamous by nature, and 8% say all humans are not monogamous by nature.
Americans 65 and older are more likely than younger adults to believe all or most humans are monogamous by nature (39% vs. 29%). Republicans are more likely than Democrats to believe all or most people are monogamous by nature (44% vs. 27%). (Jamie Ballard)
Quick takes
World Cup: 14% of Americans say they’ll buy tickets to a match at the upcoming World Cup, including 6% who say they will travel to attend a game
AI: 30% of Americans say the benefits of AI for society outweigh the drawbacks either greatly (12%) or somewhat (17%), while 35% say the drawbacks outweigh the benefits either greatly (21%) or somewhat (15%)
Pardons: 54% of Americans say the U.S. president’s power to pardon people convicted of federal crimes should be limited, including 79% of Democrats, 55% of Independents, and 29% of Republicans
Pope: 55% of Americans strongly or somewhat disapprove of an excerpt of a social media post from Donald Trump that criticizes Pope Leo XIV as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” while 27% approve of it
MAGA: 19% of Americans identify as both MAGA and America First, while 4% say they’re MAGA only, 13% say they’re America First only, and 49% say they are neither
Elsewhere
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CBS + YouGov on Iran
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Polling in the press
War powers vote will test Senate’s support for Trump’s war with Iran (Washington Post)
Most Americans opposed to Trump signature on money: Poll (The Hill)
Hawks and Doves (Brain Lenses | Colin Wright’s Substack)
In Defense of Dumb Dogs (New York Times)
Get yourself a ‘Luddite boyfriend,’ the biggest green flag in modern dating (Yahoo Life)
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Carl Bialik contributed to this newsletter.
The obvious answer is Parasaurolophus, and I’m stunned so many people are so wrong
Ankylosaurus or bust!