{"id":326490,"date":"2026-07-16T09:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T13:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=326490"},"modified":"2026-07-17T16:12:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T20:12:50","slug":"engagement-in-public-life-is-linked-with-americans-views-of-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2026\/07\/16\/engagement-in-public-life-is-linked-with-americans-views-of-politics-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Engagement in public life is linked with Americans\u2019 views of politics, news"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
About this research<\/summary>\n

This report from the Pew-Knight Initiative<\/a> examines how Americans engage in public life across a range of activities, including politics, civic and community involvement, news consumption and religious participation. It analyzes how patterns of engagement, when clustered together, can form distinct groups within the U.S. public. It also explores how these engagement groups<\/em> differ in their demographics, attitudes and levels of civic knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report draws from nationally representative surveys of U.S. adults (refer to \u201cHow we did this\u201d below). Many questions in these surveys asked about behaviors in the past 12 months, which for most respondents included the 2024 presidential election. Responses reflect the activities Americans took part in during this specific period. Patterns around political activity in particular may look somewhat different at other points in the political cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why we did this<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

People participate in public life in different ways \u2013 from voting and volunteering to following the news and taking part in religious or community activities. But these behaviors are often studied separately, making it difficult to see how they come together in people\u2019s day-to-day lives. We conducted this study to provide a more integrated picture of how the public engages across these different domains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also used a specially designed survey with the awareness that some surveys can struggle to reach Americans who are less likely to participate in public life \u2013 because these same people also may be less likely to participate in surveys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we did this<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This analysis draws on two Pew Research Center surveys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main data source is the Cross\u2011Sectional Engagement Survey, fielded July 9 to Dec. 5, 2025, among 5,393 adults. People could respond online, on paper or by telephone, and we reached out multiple times to people who didn\u2019t initially respond. Refer to the methodology<\/a> for details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also used data from Wave 179 of the American Trends Panel (ATP), a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults, conducted Sept. 8-14, 2025, among 5,195 respondents via web and phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To classify Americans into engagement groups, we did a cluster analysis of the Cross-Sectional Engagement Survey based on 19 measures of participation across the range of activities mentioned above. Respondents in the ATP survey were assigned to these groups based on how similar their patterns of behavior were to those identified in the cross\u2011sectional survey. We used the ATP survey to examine engagement groups\u2019 levels of civic knowledge and views of politics and news. Refer to \u201cHow we measured Americans\u2019 engagement in public life<\/a>\u201d for details on questionnaire design and data analysis approaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the survey questions used for this analysis<\/a>, the detailed responses<\/a> and the survey methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Americans who participate more in public life are more interested in politics <\/strong>\u2013 and more likely to have positive feelings about the state of their local communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a new study, we sorted U.S. adults into four groups based on their answers to questions about how they engage in public life. The least active group, Outsiders, are less likely than other groups to say they have negative feelings about the state of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outsiders are also less likely to trust news organizations. But trust in the federal government is similarly low across all four groups \u2013 and engagement makes little difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highly engaged Americans are more interested in politics<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Americans who are more politically and civically engaged say they are more interested in politics<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
% of U.S. adults in each engagement group who say they are __ interested in politics<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Note: Engagement groups are based on a cluster analysis that sorted Americans into four groups based on their responses to 19 questions about political activity, civic involvement, religious attendance and attention to news. Respondents who did not answer are not shown.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
Source: Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 8-14, 2025.\n\u201cHow Americans Are Engaged With News, Politics, Religion and Civic Life\u201d<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
PEW-KNIGHT INITIATIVE<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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