We study whether, and how, societal views about which problems are most important or worth solving are reflected in the direction of technological progress. Compared to Republican inventors, Democrats are more likely to patent technologies addressing climate-change mitigation or women’s reproductive health and less likely to patent weapons. These gaps are not explained by differences in inventive ability, persist within organizations, have strengthened over the past two decades, and also appear in subsequent innovation. Together, societal views and their polarization appear to be important drivers of technological change, operating in part through inventors’ technology choices, with implications for innovation policy.