America's deep religious divide over empathy
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White evangelical Protestants are the only major religious group in which a majority says empathy can become dangerous when it leads people away from a society guided by God's truth, according to a new survey.
Why it matters: The survey lands amid a quiet civil war within American Christianity over who deserves empathy.
- Conservatives ranging from evangelical pastors to Elon Musk have framed empathy as a vulnerability in debates over immigration, racial justice and LGBTQ+ rights.
- In a February 2025 interview with Joe Rogan, Musk called empathy "the fundamental weakness of Western civilization," while acknowledging its potential good and warning against its weaponization.
By the numbers: The annual American Values Survey from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) released Tuesday found that 42% of white evangelical Protestants agreed that empathy is a foundational moral value that helps build a healthy society.
- Separately, 54% agreed that empathy can become dangerous when it leads people away from a society guided by God's truth.
- In every other religious group, PRRI found that at least 66% agreed with the foundational-value statement, including 73% of white mainline Protestants and Hispanic Catholics.
- Empathy's foundational value was endorsed by 83% of religiously unaffiliated Americans, 80% of respondents grouped under other non-Christian religions, 77% of Jewish Americans and 65% of Latter-day Saints.
The intrigue: The survey found a 30-point partisan gap: 84% of Democrats agreed with the foundational-value statement, compared with 54% of Republicans. Independents were at 70%.
- White evangelicals stand out among religious groups, but PRRI reports religious and partisan results separately.
- The survey doesn't establish how much white evangelicals contribute to the Republican-Democratic gap.
Zoom in: The divide also tracks with PRRI's Christian nationalism measure. Among people PRRI classifies as Christian nationalism adherents, 38% agreed that empathy is foundational, compared with 94% of rejecters.
- PRRI classifies respondents as Christian nationalist adherents or sympathizers based on support for a U.S. government and laws grounded in Christianity and the view that Christians should exercise dominion over society.
- Six in 10 adherents agreed that empathy can become dangerous, compared with 6% of rejecters.
What they're saying: "As Christian nationalist leaders attack the sentiment of empathy, a disturbing 'empathy gap' has opened, separating Republicans and white evangelicals from most other Americans," PRRI President and Founder Robert P. Jones said in a statement.
- Jones said the findings raise questions about the moral foundations that let people from different backgrounds share a democracy.
Methodology: PRRI conducted the American Values Survey online Aug. 20–Sept. 7, 2026, among 5,200 adults in Ipsos' KnowledgePanel and 339 additional adults recruited through opt-in panels to increase sample sizes in smaller states. The survey covered adults ages 18 and older in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
- The margin of sampling error is ±1.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level for results based on the entire sample.
