Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Laura Silver is an associate director at Pew Research Center. She is an expert in international survey research and writes about a variety of topics, including global attitudes toward China, views of democracy and opinions about foreign policy. She has been a lead author of many innovative reports, including a data essay comparing U.S. and Chinese soft power, a report based on an open-ended question about what would improve democracy and a report exploring what makes life meaningful. She also regularly uses secondary data to look at international trends such as the ages of world leaders, demographic patterns in China and the vote share of populist political parties in Europe. She has designed and implemented multiple focus group projects as well. On the quantitative side, she is involved in all aspects of the Center’s research process, including designing survey questionnaires and sample designs, managing fieldwork, processing and analyzing data, and writing reports.
Prior to joining Pew Research Center, she was a foreign affairs research analyst at the U.S. Department of State in the Office of Opinion Research, where she designed and implemented surveys in East Asia. In this role, she was awarded Best New Analyst by the Bureau of Intelligence and Research for her public opinion analysis. She received a dual Ph.D. from the Annenberg School for Communication and the political science department at the University of Pennsylvania where her work focused on American public opinion of China, particularly in the context of presidential elections. Her work has been published in journals such as the International Journal of Public Opinion Research and International Studies Quarterly. She regularly shares findings on international public opinion with U.S. and international media outlets and has been quoted by The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, BBC, Deutsche Welle, Foreign Policy magazine, South China Morning Post, Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, among others.
A new survey of 16 publics finds a significant uptick in ratings for the U.S., with strong support for Joe Biden and several of his major policy initiatives. But many raise concerns about the health of America’s political system.
Differences within each party on views of foreign policy emerge based on where Americans turn for political news.
Large ideological divides persist on views of tradition, national pride and discrimination, especially in the U.S.
Across 11 questions on cultural subjects, the gap between the left and right in the U.S. is wider than in the European countries surveyed.
Here are five key findings about people’s attitudes toward systemic reforms in the U.S., France, Germany and the UK.
As Americans eye the Asia-Pacific region, they see a mix of friends and some foes, according to a new survey conducted Feb. 1-7, 2021.
Unlike with other China-related issues, there is little partisan difference on this question, a February survey found.
In the U.S., concerns about political corruption are especially widespread. Two-in-three Americans agree that the phrase “most politicians are corrupt” describes their country well.
Americans’ opinions of China have soured in recent years. But what are Americans thinking about when they say they have a negative view of China?
Fewer adults have confidence in Joe Biden to handle the U.S.-China relationship than other foreign policy issues.
