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Four in ten Americans say they've never experienced racial discrimination

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A quarter of Americans (25%) say racial discrimination has left them anxious around certain people, and about as many say it has made the world feel like an unsafe place, according to a December 2025 Verasight survey of 1,000 U.S. adults.

Similar shares say those experiences have made them easily annoyed or irritable (23%), afraid that something awful might happen (21%), or isolated from others (19%), and 12% report excessive worrying they struggle to stop or control. Meanwhile, 41% of Americans say they have never faced racial discrimination at all.

Topline

single choice

Topline distribution

Four in ten Americans say they've never experienced racial discrimination.

Thinking about all the racial discrimination you have experienced in your life, which of the following have you felt because of those experiences?

  • I have never experienced racial discrimination 41.3%
  • Anxiety when I am around certain people 25.3%
  • Feeling like the world is an unsafe place 25.1%
  • Easily annoyed or irritable 23.1%
  • Feeling afraid that something awful might happen 20.6%
  • Feeling isolated from others 19.4%
  • Excessive worrying that I struggle to stop or control 11.9%

2025 · base n 1,000 · +/- 3.2%

soc_pol

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Methodology

Full methodology
Mode
Verasight panel recruited via random address-based sampling, random person-to-person text messaging, and dynamic online targeting
Field dates
2025-12-03 → 2025-12-08
Base (unweighted)
1,000
Margin of error
+/- 3.2%
Module
soc_pol

Source

Citation

Verasight Human/LLM Comparison Survey #2025-172, fielded December 3-8, 2025, N=1,000 US adults age 18+, +/- 3.2%.

https://reports.verasight.io/r/verasight-human-v-synthetic

Verasight survey methodology

How Verasight conducts surveys.

This page describes the Verasight general survey contract, separate from how the Data Library packages it. When a wave report is published, its field dates, sample sizes, and module breakdown are listed in that report.

Mode
Verasight panel recruited via random address-based sampling, random person-to-person text messaging, and dynamic online targeting.
Population
US adults age 18+.
Sample design
Surveys are run as omnibus or single-topic waves. Omnibus waves are split into modules with their own respondent set, typically around one thousand respondents per module.
Field window
Each wave specifies its own field dates. Most omnibus waves field across roughly two weeks.
Weighting
Per-module weighting to CPS targets including age, race and ethnicity, sex, income, education, region, and metropolitan status.
Partisanship benchmark
Pew Research Center's NPORS benchmarking surveys, three-year running average.
Vote benchmark
2024 presidential vote population benchmarks.
Margin of error
Typically about plus or minus 3.4 to 3.6 percent per module at standard module sizes. Question-level MoE is recomputed when a base shrinks materially below the module baseline.
Reporting
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Transparency
Verasight is a member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research Transparency Initiative.

The canonical report hub is reports.verasight.io; older reports may remain on verified legacy hosts.