Mobilizer, connector, spectator, or outsider? New Pew research categorizes how Americans do (or don’t) engage civically

Per a new Pew-Knight Initiative study, Americans divide into four distinct civic engagement types. Mobilizers, roughly one in ten, are the most active across all forms of participation. Connectors make up twenty-eight percent—highly engaged in volunteering and donations, but far less so in politics. Spectators account for nearly a third: they follow the news closely but participate less in civic and political activities. Outsiders, also roughly a third, are least engaged on all fronts, though forty-one percent reported voting in twenty twenty-four. The research, based on surveys from the latter half of twenty twenty-five, also found younger Americans more likely to be Spectators and older Americans more likely to be Connectors. And here's an interesting finding: the most civically engaged Americans report the most negative feelings about the country overall, yet simultaneously the most positive feelings about their local communities.

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