Skip to content
Unpopular Opinions
Blog Download on the App Store
en
dataunpopular opinionsdebate game

What Players Really Think: The 50 Most Divisive Opinions in France

The 50 opinions that split France down the middle, the 10 most unpopular and the 10 most consensual, from 2.2 million real votes. Open data, updated monthly.

Published · 8 min read · by the team at Unpopular Opinions

In short

  • This page publishes the most divisive opinions in the Unpopular Opinions app: the ones where players split closest to 50/50. Computed on September 17, 2026 from 2,184,085 real votes on 1,414 opinions.
  • The most divisive opinion right now: "Ultratrail harms nature more than it promotes it.", 50% agree on 4,645 votes. The most unpopular: "Amusement parks are for kids.", 6%. The most consensual: "The rules of UNO are never the same depending on the person.", 97%.
  • The data is open (CC BY 4.0), available as JSON and CSV with the wording in French and English, and refreshed every month. Crediting "Unpopular Opinions" with a link to this page is all it takes to reuse it.

How we measure “divisive”

An opinion is divisive when people split almost evenly. On this page that is not a feeling, it is a calculation: for each opinion we divide the number of players who voted “agree” by the total number of votes, and look at how far from 50% it lands. The closer to 50%, the more the opinion splits the table.

The ranking rules:

  • Source: votes from players of the Unpopular Opinions app, pulled from our database on September 17, 2026.
  • Threshold: at least 1,000 votes per opinion, so the percentage is stable. 339 opinions clear it in the themes we publish.
  • Themes: Classic, Food, Sports and Couples. The Politics, Sexual and Controversial themes stay in the app and are not published here, so this page stays readable by everyone.
  • Refresh: monthly. The date at the top of the article is the latest pull; percentages move as new votes come in.

The 50 most divisive opinions

Ranked from closest to 50% to furthest. Ties go to the most voted. Each line gives the share of players who agree and the number of votes.

  1. Ultratrail harms nature more than it promotes it. 50% agree · 4,645 votes.
  2. Surprise birthdays are anxiety-inducing. 50% agree · 1,901 votes.
  3. Energy drinks are better than coffee. 50% agree · 1,901 votes.
  4. Smoothies are just sugar disguised as healthy. 50% agree · 1,870 votes.
  5. Targeted advertising should be banned. 50% agree · 1,844 votes.
  6. Smartwatches are gadgets and useless. 50% agree · 1,803 votes.
  7. Social media algorithms should be public. 50% agree · 1,802 votes.
  8. Cryptocurrency is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme. 50% agree · 1,643 votes.
  9. Everyone is wrong except you. 49% agree · 4,982 votes.
  10. Tea beats coffee. 51% agree · 4,967 votes.
  11. Being an influencer is not a real job. 49% agree · 1,944 votes.
  12. Cutting your pasta is heresy. 51% agree · 1,918 votes.
  13. Cheese mold is disgusting. 51% agree · 1,911 votes.
  14. Marvel is overrated. 49% agree · 1,890 votes.
  15. Artists should have a guaranteed minimum income. 51% agree · 1,880 votes.
  16. Karaoke is an underrated form of artistic expression. 51% agree · 1,868 votes.
  17. Instagram was better with the number of likes. 51% agree · 1,771 votes.
  18. Jealousy is proof of a lack of trust in the relationship. 52% agree · 5,208 votes.
  19. Golf is a sport for old people. 52% agree · 5,045 votes.
  20. Iron Man is a much better written character than Batman. 48% agree · 4,797 votes.
  21. McDonald’s will always be better than Burger King. 48% agree · 1,937 votes.
  22. Mint syrup is disgusting. 48% agree · 1,927 votes.
  23. The mosquito is the most dangerous animal. 48% agree · 1,883 votes.
  24. Television isn’t dead. 52% agree · 1,877 votes.
  25. Friends is bad. 48% agree · 1,838 votes.
  26. Domestic flights should be banned. 48% agree · 1,831 votes.
  27. The marine aquarium is better than the tropical aquarium. 52% agree · 1,202 votes.
  28. Coffee isn’t that good. 47% agree · 5,046 votes.
  29. Gaining weight is harder than losing it. 47% agree · 4,994 votes.
  30. Mountain sports are way better than water sports. 47% agree · 4,957 votes.
  31. Carbonara is made with fresh cream. 47% agree · 1,949 votes.
  32. Dogs are superior to cats. 53% agree · 1,882 votes.
  33. Fast fashion should not exist. 53% agree · 1,846 votes.
  34. Pan-fried gnocchi are better than homemade. 53% agree · 1,845 votes.
  35. Salmon roe is better than caviar. 47% agree · 1,712 votes.
  36. Oreos aren’t that great. 54% agree · 16,098 votes.
  37. Too much spice always ruins food. 46% agree · 5,046 votes.
  38. Pizza is one of the best foods ever created. 46% agree · 5,041 votes.
  39. Rice is best when it’s sticky. 46% agree · 5,010 votes.
  40. Sports records will soon be impossible to beat. 46% agree · 4,996 votes.
  41. There is no difference between cheap vodka and Grey Goose. 46% agree · 4,825 votes.
  42. Smurfs are better than Dragibus. 46% agree · 1,915 votes.
  43. Everyone should have a vegetable garden. 54% agree · 1,912 votes.
  44. Family gatherings are toxic. 46% agree · 1,902 votes.
  45. Eating local is a rich person’s privilege. 54% agree · 1,893 votes.
  46. Cat before dog. 46% agree · 1,212 votes.
  47. The real rules of Monopoly are too complicated. 54% agree · 1,209 votes.
  48. Finding a job you love is the best way to end up not finding any work. 55% agree · 5,379 votes.
  49. Putting ketchup on pasta is criminal. 45% agree · 5,081 votes.
  50. Over-the-top action movies are boring. 55% agree · 4,974 votes.

To play with this list: someone reads the opinion out loud, everyone votes at the same time, thumbs up or thumbs down, and the minority at the table has to justify itself. On these fifty, the table will rarely be unanimous. Full rules and a selection by theme: 50 unpopular opinions to start a debate.

The 10 most unpopular opinions

The ones almost nobody defends. A minority does anyway, and that is who you want to hear from at the table.

  1. Amusement parks are for kids. 6% agree · 1,867 votes.
  2. Reading is for geeks. 8% agree · 1,211 votes.
  3. Singing in the shower is dangerous and very stressful. 8% agree · 1,210 votes.
  4. Sleeping more than 6 hours a night is laziness. 10% agree · 4,932 votes.
  5. You can forgive your family for anything. 11% agree · 5,003 votes.
  6. Soft sandwich bread is better than a baguette. 12% agree · 5,043 votes.
  7. Turkish toilets are better. 12% agree · 4,631 votes.
  8. Industrial sliced bread is better than bakery bread. 12% agree · 1,889 votes.
  9. Giving gifts is emotional blackmail. 13% agree · 1,956 votes.
  10. School after 14 is useless. 13% agree · 1,856 votes.

The 10 opinions (almost) everyone agrees with

At the other end: opinions where the debate is lost before it starts. Useful to end a round on a laugh, or to spot the one person who votes against everyone.

  1. The rules of UNO are never the same depending on the person. 97% agree · 1,209 votes.
  2. You can succeed without straight As. 96% agree · 1,931 votes.
  3. A few good friends beat a lot of average ones. 96% agree · 1,904 votes.
  4. Elderly people should be required to take tests to keep their driver’s license. 96% agree · 1,882 votes.
  5. Admitting you’re wrong is a sign of maturity. 94% agree · 4,984 votes.
  6. Sauce really makes a difference in a good dish. 93% agree · 5,039 votes.
  7. Time goes by way too fast. 93% agree · 4,940 votes.
  8. Everyone wants to be understood. Very few truly want to understand. Listening has become rarer. 93% agree · 1,209 votes.
  9. Throwing trash in nature is a disgusting and irresponsible thing to do. 92% agree · 5,018 votes.
  10. Animals can pull a person out of depression. 91% agree · 1,209 votes.

The most divisive opinion in each theme

ThemeOpinionsVotesMost divisive opinion
Classic4301,219,126Ultratrail harms nature more than it promotes it. (50%, 4,645 votes)
Food100236,995Tea beats coffee. (51%, 4,967 votes)
Sports85133,868Ultratrail harms nature more than it promotes it. (50%, 4,645 votes)
Couples161167,860Jealousy is proof of a lack of trust in the relationship. (52%, 5,208 votes)

Key numbers

  • 1,414 opinions visible in the app, across 7 themes.
  • 2,184,085 votes in total, i.e. 1,545 votes per opinion on average (median: 1,121).
  • 784 opinions have received more than 1,000 votes.
  • Record on this page: “Oreos aren’t that great”, 16,098 votes, 54% agree.

Download the data

The full dataset behind this page (the 50 most divisive, 10 most unpopular and 10 most consensual opinions, totals and method, with the wording in French and English) is published under Creative Commons BY 4.0:

To cite: “Unpopular Opinions, The 50 Most Divisive Opinions, pulled September 17, 2026, https://unpopular-opinions.app/en/blog/most-divisive-opinions/”. Journalists, teachers, creators: write to contact@unpopular-opinions.app for an extract on a specific theme, or an opinion to test in the app before you publish.

Method and limits

  • Who votes. Players of the Unpopular Opinions iOS app. They self-select: these are people who downloaded a party game on iPhone. This is not a representative sample of the French population and we do not weight the results.
  • How we count. One vote = one swipe. In multiplayer on a single phone, each player swipes in turn, so each player counts as one vote. We collect neither age, nor gender, nor location.
  • What it measures. The share of players who agree with a statement as worded. Wording matters: “Napping is a waste of time” and “Napping is useful” would not give mirror-image numbers.
  • What is not published. Opinions from the Politics, Sexual and Controversial themes, and anything targeting a person, an origin, a religion or people’s looks. They stay in the app for players who choose them. The site publishes at most 200 distinct opinions across all pages: the full bank (over 1,400) stays in the app.
  • Stability. An opinion only enters these lists from 1,000 votes. Beyond that, the percentage rarely moves by more than a point or two from one month to the next.

To submit an opinion to test, do it in the app: it gets reviewed, published, and its percentage will show up here once it has enough votes.

All these opinions, and 2,000 more, are in the app

Add the names, pick a theme, swipe. At the end, you know who is Popular, who is Unpopular, and who has some explaining to do.

Download on the App Store Soon

Frequently asked questions

What is a divisive opinion?

A statement people split on almost evenly: around 50% agree and 50% disagree. On this page, "divisive" is measured, not felt: it is the distance between the share of players who agree and 50%. "Ultratrail harms nature more than it promotes it." sits at 50% on 4,645 votes: France is split down the middle.

Where do these numbers come from?

From the real votes of players of the Unpopular Opinions app. Each player swipes agree or disagree on each opinion; the percentage is the number of agrees divided by all votes. Pulled from our database on September 17, 2026: 1,414 opinions, 2,184,085 votes, 1,545 votes per opinion on average.

Are these results representative of the French population?

No, and we don't claim they are. Voters are players of a party game app on iPhone who chose to play it. These are real votes in large numbers (at least 1,000 per opinion listed here), not a poll on a representative sample. They tell you what players think, not the population.

Can I reuse this data?

Yes. The dataset is published under Creative Commons BY 4.0: you can quote, copy and reuse it, including commercially, as long as you credit "Unpopular Opinions" with a link to this page. Formats: JSON (https://unpopular-opinions.app/data/opinions-clivantes.json) and CSV (https://unpopular-opinions.app/data/opinions-clivantes.csv).

Read next