Americans Across Political Spectrum Share Deep Distrust & Pessimism
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January 2025
A new NORC study yields paradigm-shifting insights.
NORC conducted a deep dive into Americans’ civic attitudes.
Groundbreaking NORC research reveals that Americans across the political spectrum still share some things in common, including a deep and growing distrust of the government, government leaders, the media, and their neighbors. Specifically, our foundational study for Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication showed that:
- Barely one in 10 Americans thinks the government represents them well.
- Only two in 10 trust government officials to do the right thing.
- Seven in 10 believe that corporations and the wealthy control the government.
- One in four says the country needs a total overhaul.
“These and other findings from our pre-election survey suggest that at least some voters were motivated by long-standing, negative feelings,” said Tom Rosenstiel, a senior fellow in NORC’s Public Affairs & Media Research department and a professor at the University of Maryland.
NORC used a nuanced approach to investigating civic attitudes.
To examine people’s moods and perspectives on historical and systemic issues, our researchers created a battery of nuanced inquiries to supplement more typical ones. We were only able to include about half (43) of our in-depth inquiries to survey respondents’ trust in U.S. democratic processes and political institutions, connections to community, faith in fellow Americans and the media, outlook on diversity, the economy, and the American Dream.
We interviewed 3,031 people, 1,514 from AmeriSpeak®, NORC’s nationally representative, probability-based survey panel, and 1,517 from a non-probability sample that NORC’s TrueNorth calibration tool used to help reduce potential bias and improve accuracy. Next, we employed a latent class analysis—a statistical technique that identifies classes of people who share characteristics within a population—to group our respondents based on their answers.
“Conventional polls focus on party affiliation and other markers—such as education and age—unintentionally creating a two-sided left-right narrative. That narrative has led us to believe the nation is polarized along party lines,” said Rosenstiel. “Our nation is indeed deeply polarized, but our research reveals five sides to that story, not two.”
“We cannot understand how Americans engage with government, news, civic life, and each other without more broadly investigating their troubled emotions, deeper feelings, and attitudes.”
We found five distinct types of Americans.
Our data reveal that the nation can be more clearly understood as five groups that do not divide neatly along party or ideological lines—The Ambivalent, Classically Liberal, Mostly MAGA, The Disillusioned, and The Believers:
- The Ambivalent (29 percent) are slightly more moderate, less concerned about current politics, and get most of their news from social media. They have high trust in the military, scientific community, local government, and other people.
- Classically Liberal (22 percent) people are mostly non-religious, college-educated Caucasians dissatisfied with the state of politics. They support immigrants, get their news from digital sources, and—like The Ambivalent—highly trust the military, scientific community, local government, and other people.
- Mostly MAGA (21 percent), like the Classically Liberal, are mostly white people dissatisfied with the current state of politics, yet highly trusting of local government, the military, and other people. Mostly MAGA are highly distrustful of immigrants and exhibit high rates of racial resentment. Mostly MAGA members are primarily older, Republican, and Christian. They have high trust in religion and the Supreme Court. They also have a negative view of the news media and receive more news from cable than other channels.
- The Disillusioned (15 percent) are the most disenchanted. They are downcast about the nation’s economy and future and less satisfied with their quality of life, financial situation, and prospects for economic mobility. They skew younger, have lower incomes, are less educated, and are more moderate. Like Mostly MAGA and The Classically Liberal, their members are dissatisfied with current politics. They also have low trust in institutions and other people. Like The Ambivalent, they tend to get their news from social media. They also view the news media negatively, like Mostly MAGA members.
- The Believers (13 percent) are optimists. They skew older, are religiously diverse, and tend to be Democrats. They have a positive view of democracy, the country’s future, and the news media, consuming most of their news from traditional broadcast networks. They’re more satisfied with their quality of life, financial situation, and economic mobility and are less concerned about current politics. They have high trust in government and other people, including those who are different from them.
Some points of agreement are surprising.
Americans across party lines say the nation needs to undergo significant change. Notably, 59 percent want “substantial” change, including the Classically Liberal (69 percent) and Mostly MAGA (65 percent). Mostly MAGA and the Classically Liberal also both take part in the political process at high levels, with 90 percent allegedly voting in presidential elections “always or most of the time” and 70 percent saying they also vote in the midterm ones. They also both avidly seek and consume news. Interestingly, the exact same percentage of both—6 percent—say that U.S. democracy is currently not working well. The following are other points of agreement:
- Eighty percent of The Believers, Classically Liberal, and Mostly MAGA—and even 54 percent of The Disillusioned—say that the media they use do a good job of informing them, even though they may view other aspects of news coverage as being less dependable.
- Sixty-one percent of respondents say that they’ve achieved the American Dream or are on their way to it.
- Six in 10 rate the U.S. economy as “very or somewhat poor”—including 89 percent of the Mostly MAGA and 82 percent of The Disillusioned. However, only 28 percent of respondents report being pessimistic about their personal finances.
“All of this underscores that we cannot understand how Americans engage with government, news, civic life, and each other without more broadly investigating their troubled emotions, deeper feelings, and attitudes,” said Rosenstiel. “I hope that our new typology inspires future researchers to investigate why so many Americans feel misunderstood or unseen and provides journalists and policymakers with unique opportunities to rebuild the public square by meeting people where they are.”
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