The Secret Life of Public Opinion

Brought to you by Penguin.

The team at YouGov reveal how public opinion really works – and reveal that we’re not as divided as we think.

Are anti-democratic authoritarians really on the rise? Is British politics actually more polarised than ever before? And do Britons genuinely hold strong views on the ‘culture wars’?

From reading the news, you’d think the answer to all these questions is a resounding ‘yes’. And yet the evidence from the UK’s leading polling firm, YouGov, would indicate quite the opposite – that we are more moderate, and less divided, than ever before.

Here, the CEO of YouGov and a leading academic team up to reveal why almost everything you’ve been told about public opinion is wrong. Drawing on thousands of polls from across the nation, they reveal that our opinions on conflict and politicians, culture wars and democracy are much stranger – and more interesting – than we have been told.

© Stephan Shakespeare and Joel Rogers de Waal 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026