Subscription Notification
We have noticed that there is an issue with your subscription billing details. Please update your billing details here
Please update your billing information
The subscription details associated with this account need to be updated. Please update your billing details here to continue enjoying your subscription.
Your subscription will end shortly
Please update your billing details here to continue enjoying your access to the most informative and considered journalism in the UK.
Date Time
Share
Public split on whether ‘woke’ is compliment or insult, and unsure what ‘culture wars’ means – despite huge surge
King’s College London
Culture wars in the UK: how the public understand the debate
Read the research
The UK public are as likely to think being “woke” is a compliment (26%) as they are to think it’s an insult (24%) – and are in fact most likely to say they don’t know what the term means (38%), according to a major new study of culture wars in the UK.
The research, by the Policy Institute at King’s College London and Ipsos MORI, also finds that a majority of the public have heard little to nothing about the phrases “cancel culture” or “identity politics”, and that there is limited awareness of the culture war debate more generally in the UK – despite a huge surge in related media coverage in recent years, from just 21 newspaper articles focused on the issue in the UK in 2015 to over 500 in 2020.
Analysis of survey data from 1 to 16 April reveals the groups – named the
Keen, the
Concerned and the
Content – vary according to their reasons for not wanting to return to pre-Covid life, how comfortable they think they will feel resuming various activities once they are allowed, their life satisfaction during lockdown, and their views on the need to fight Covid versus protecting civil liberties.
The study was carried out by King’s College London, the University of Bristol and the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emergency Preparedness and Response, and is based on Ipsos MORI survey data.
“The Keen” (52% of UK)