Most Americans (78%) say elected officials should avoid using heated or aggressive language because it could encourage some people to take violent action. A far smaller share (20%) says that officials should be able to use heated language without worrying about how some people may act.

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand how the public views the use of heated or aggressive language by elected officials.

For this analysis, we surveyed 3,554 U.S. adults from Aug. 4 to 10, 2025. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Interviews were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education, presidential vote (among voters) and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline and the survey methodology.