The collective answers give us a composite picture of how Americans view other Americans. Indeed, when it comes to assessing their fellow countrymen's feelings on political and social issues, Americans seem to be much better judges than they were with questions about personal behavior. The accuracy of the perception is striking. Regarding personal economics, the perception again is fairly accurate. The perception exaggerates the reality by about 10 points in both directions, but the proportion of better versus worse is pretty close.
Perceptions are similar, but respondents are a bit more pessimistic about others.
In this area of personal finances, people generally see others as a reflection of themselves. As we observed last month, the gap between self-description and perception of others is usually widest on issues and opinions which hit close to home. Consider political ideology. But the perception has most Americans leaning more to the center. The percentage of liberals matches the reality almost exactly.