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Across 25 countries, people tend to see their fellow citizens as more morally good than bad, but there are sharp differences between nations and continuing divisions over issues such as abortion, homosexuality, gambling and divorce.
The study by Pew Research Center explored how adults judge the morality and ethics of others in their own country, as well as their views on a range of personal and social behaviours.
Across almost all the countries surveyed, positive assessments outweighed negative ones.
The US stood out as the only country where a majority described their fellow citizens’ morals and ethics as bad rather than good (53% vs 47%).
But Pew said scepticism about the moral character of others was not confined to the US, and tended to be stronger among supporters of the opposition than those aligned with the ruling party.
The findings point to a wider international picture in which public confidence in the moral behaviour of fellow citizens remains generally intact but often sits alongside deep political and cultural disagreement.
The survey also found that some moral questions command broad consensus across borders, while others produce striking national contrasts.
Extramarital affairs drew the strongest overall disapproval, with a median of 77% across the 25 countries saying adultery is morally wrong. No less than 50% of adults in every country surveyed took that view.
By contrast, contraception and divorce were among the most widely accepted issues. In almost all countries surveyed, at least two-thirds of respondents said these were either seen as admissible or viewed as matters of personal choice rather than morality
Abortion produced a much more uneven response. In many African and Latin American countries, at least half said it was morally unacceptable. In most of the European countries surveyed, however, large majorities viewed abortion as as acceptable or not a moral matter.
Views on homosexuality, gambling, marijuana and alcohol also varied widely.
Pew found that on many questions Europe tended to be permissive than parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, though there were important differences within Europe itself.
Across Western nations, smaller minorities viewed homosexuality as morally unacceptable – Germany and Sweden had the lowest at 5% each, while the UK stood at 16%. The US was significantly higher but still a minority at 39%. By contrast, 96% of Nigerians view homosexuality as morally unacceptable, and 56% of South Koreans.
In the UK, the findings suggest a society that is comparatively liberal on several moral questions, while still showing clear differences between men and women, religious and non-religious people, and younger and older adults.
One notable gap identified in the report was on homosexuality: in the UK, men (20%) were markedly more likely than women (11%) to say it is morally wrong.
Across the 25 countries, women were generally more inclined than men to describe behaviours such as pornography, gambling, alcohol use and marijuana use as morally unacceptable.
Older adults also tended to express stricter moral views than younger people on a number of issues, particularly around marijuana, gambling, alcohol and homosexuality.
Pew also found that education were a factor in attitudes: adults with lower levels of education were, in many countries, more inclined than those with higher levels of education to describe a range of behaviours as morally wrong.
Religion remained another major dividing line.
People who said religion is very important in their lives were generally more likely to judge the behaviours in question as morally wrong.
Christians were often among the most likely to object to many of the practices examined, although Pew found substantial variation between countries.
European Christians, for example, were often far less likely than Christians in Africa, Latin America or the US to describe abortion or homosexuality as morally unacceptable.
Where comparisons were possible, Catholics and Protestants within the same country often held broadly similar views on many issues, though Protestants were typically somewhat more likely than Catholics to regard homosexuality as morally unacceptable.
The study also tracked changes since 2013 in 22 of the countries surveyed previously.
In broad terms, Pew found that moral disapproval has eased in several areas over the past decade, especially on divorce, homosexuality and abortion, although the shift was far from universal.
In Kenya, for example, opposition to divorce fell sharply, while in India the share saying divorce is morally wrong increased.
The notable exception was Nigeria, the sole other country surveyed where most adults still considered divorce to be morally unacceptable.
Even there, however, the figure stood at 55%, down from 61% in 2013.
On some issues, however, change was mixed rather than one-directional.
Attitudes to alcohol and gambling, for instance, varied considerably by country, with some societies becoming more permissive and others remaining cautious.
Pew said the data does not suggest that people in one country are necessarily more judgemental overall than those elsewhere. Rather, the results indicate that moral priorities differ widely across cultures, politics, religion and generation.
