In a new Axios/Harris Poll survey, nearly half of Gen Z voters copped to lying about which candidates they support when they head to the polls.
One-in-four voters overall said they had lied about their ballots, including 48 percent of Gen Z voters, 38 percent of Millennials, 17 percent of Gen Xers, and just 6 percent of Boomers and older voters.
“There’s a new privacy emerging here, where it’s far more convenient to either lie or not talk about it,” Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema told Axios. “The new social etiquette is to be like Switzerland: Why do you want that hear?”
Lying about political support was fairly consistent among the political parties: 27 percent of Democrats admitted to lying about their vote, along with 24 percent of Republicans and 20 percent of independents.
A majority of voters (58 percent) said they believe who they are voting for is a private matter.
The survey comes as a widely-panned ad from progressive evangelical group “Vote Common Good” sees Julia Roberts telling women that they can vote differently from their husbands and “no one will ever know.”
But according to the survey, more men that women said they lied about how they voted: 30 percent of men compared to just 17 percent of women.
Meanwhile, Millennials were most likely to say they aren’t close to some family members because of differing political beliefs. While 47 percent of Millennials said politics had created severed family ties, only 33 percent of respondents overall said the same.
Gerzema said the poll, which was conducted between October 22 and 24 among a sample of 2,129 U.S. adults, suggests younger voters are more conflict-averse in both political interactions and daily settings, and that political polarization has led Americans to censor their political beliefs to preserve workplace, social and familial relationships.