Lake Research Partners

A grant to Lake Research would support a survey and focus groups to determine current attitudes toward military spending and nuclear weapons. The study would address concerns raised by many in the national security community about the recent trend we are seeing around shifting attitudes toward military spending. In two polls earlier this year, women were more conservative than men in cuts to defense spending, reversing a long-time trend. In February, NBC News/Wall Street Journal found that a majority of women found cuts in defense spending unacceptable (56 percent unacceptable to 41 percent acceptable), while men were more evenly divided, but leaned toward finding cuts in defense spending acceptable (52 percent acceptable to 48 percent acceptable). In late April/early May, a Quinnipiac University Poll found that women opposed cutting defense spending by a double-digit margin (53 percent oppose and 39 percent support) while men supported cuts a similar margin (55 percent support to 43 percent oppose). Understanding this dynamic is a very important challenge for groups interested in reprioritizing spending and reducing the military budget. Very little research has been done around these issues in general, and there is a lack of in-depth research around developing messages and language to take to the public to make the case around military spending. In addition, there is no current survey data on the attitude Americans have toward the acquisition or use of nuclear weapons.