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Since the last midterm election in 2010, support for lawmakers who are willing to compromise has risen dramatically, reflecting a desire among voters for an end to the partisan gridlock in Congress.

In October 2010, a month before the election in which Republicans gained an historic number of seats in the House and regained control of the chamber, about a third of voters said they would prefer candidates willing to compromise. Nearly twice as many voters57%said they wanted candidates who would stick to their positions.

Those numbers have since reversed themselves, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. Now, half of Americans say they would prefer candidates willing to compromise, compared with 42% to want their candidates to stick to their guns.

Support for compromise-friendly lawmakers is highest among Democrats, 62% of whom say they want candidates who are willing to make deals. Just 32% of Democrats favor candidates unwilling to do so.

On the other side of the aisle, more Republicans54%prefer candidates who stick to their positions, compared to 37% who favor those who would compromise. Supporters of the conservative tea-party movement, unsurprisingly, are the least compromise-happyjust 32% of them prefer such candidates, compared to 60% who want hardline candidatesthe exact opposite of the split among Democrats. (That number has, however, decreased since 2010, when just a fifth said they would prefer deal-making candidates.)

Tea-party conservatives are renowned for their opposition to compromise. Lawmakers such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz who are associated with the movement are famous for sticking to their positions. In the lead-up to the government shutdown last October, for example, Mr. Cruz did not back down from his attempt to defund the Affordable Care Acteven when it meant shutting down the government. In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year, he called for candidates to defend their core beliefs above all else.

The latest poll shows that as support for compromise is on an upward trend, approval of the tea party is on its way down. Just 19% of Americans said they held a positive view of the movement, down from 30% who said the same in October 2010. And a fifth of Americans said they considered themselves supporters of the tea partydown from 30% four years ago.

Support has declined significantly among people who believe the economy will get worse, men over the age of 50, people making more than $75,000 a year, and people who would prefer a Republican-controlled Congress, among other groups. Among Republicans, 37% consider themselves supporters of the tea partydown from 57% in October 2010.

The poll, which surveyed 1,000 adults from Oct. 8-12, has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.1%.

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Tea Party Further Out of Favor as Compromise Gains WSJ/NBC News Poll