Perception shifts with Supreme Court opinion

     Some Americans apparently believe it is just that, according to a Princeton University study.
     Research released this week pointed out that Americans in a survey interpreted a 2015 Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage as signaling increased public support for gay marriage.
      A Supreme Court decision “can alter the perceptions of the prevailing social norms — opinions or behaviors accepted by a group of people — around the issue,” said a Princeton University press release.  “Trusted institutions like the Supreme Court are seen to represent societal collectives and, as such, its decisions may be perceived as a signal of where the public stands and where the public is headed.”
     The court's decision held that "the 14th Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state." 
    In the months before and after the decision, 1,063 participants were surveyed several times, the news release explained. “Just after the ruling, the researchers observed a significant jump in participants’ belief that Americans support same-sex marriage, and in their belief that support would keep growing in the future.”
      Even so, “personal attitudes and feelings toward gay marriage did not change in reaction to the decision,” the release said.
      The decision may have foreshadowed a recently documented shift in public opinion, however. In June, the Pew Research Center reported that support for same-sex marriage is at its highest point since the center began polling on this issue. "Based on polling in 2017, a majority of Americans (62 percent) support same-sex marriage, while 32 percent oppose it," the center reports.
      The study, The Effect of a Supreme Court Decision Regarding Gay Marriage on Social Norms and Personal Attitudes, was led by  Margaret Tankard, associate behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corp., and Elizabeth Levy Paluck, professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. It was published in the journal Psychology Science.

      Related:

     Survey: Acceptance of gay children growing

     Teen's case sheds light on transgender issues

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