New Connection Index suggests Americans closer together than they seem

Run nearly every year since 1966, the Harris Poll has measured how alienated Americans feel and then calculated an Alienation Index based on the results. The questions measure how much, or how little, people feel their interests are heard and addressed by those with power and influence. New this year, however, is an inaugural Connection Index measuring the extent to which Americans feel connected to one another. Taken together, the two measures paint a more nuanced picture of our civic psyche, injecting optimism and nuance into the Alienation Index’s typically dark representation while underscoring the challenges we face—and perhaps lighting a path forward.

The Alienation Index is a composite score drawn from those marking “Yes, I feel this way” to the following five questions. The higher the score, the more alienated Americans feel:

• The people running the country don’t really care what happens to you;
• The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer;
• Most people in power try to take advantage of people like you;
• What you think doesn’t count very much anymore; and,
• You are left out of things going on around you.

Debuting with a score of 29 in 1966, scores have gradually crept up ever since, seemingly peaking in 2014 and 2016 at a score of 70, before dipping down to 66 in 2020. This year’s score was also 66, perhaps suggesting an apex of—or at least a respite from—the runaway disillusion that has been report to be gripping the American people in recent years.

Comparing this years numbers to 2016, there are hints that matters may be improving, if ever so slightly. Firstly, the 77% who feel those in power are apathetic toward them is down from 88% in 2016 while the 62% who don’t think their opinions matter marks a decline from 68% in that same year. Second, Harris last compiled the Alienation Index in 2020, and while the intervening years have been fraught—starting with the COVID pandemic, through the 2020 election and January 6, the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, inflation, Ukraine, Trump indictments, and so on—the score has not budged, another positive sign if only by not worsening.

Our new Connection Index suggests even more reasons for optimism.

The Alienation Index only tells part of the story. Since it measures Americans’ feelings toward those in power and the extent to which they feel their interests are heard and addressed, this year the Harris Poll created a new measure to gauge how Americans relate to each other in the Connection Index. Think of the Alienation Index as a vertical measure, going up the power structure, and the Connection Index as horizontal, measuring how Americans view and relate to each other.

Below are the five questions composing the inaugural Connection Index:

• You can see the good in those you disagree with;
• You have a friend who doesn’t share your views;
• The “culture wars” are overblown in terms of how important the issues of those debates are to daily life;
• Most Americans get along with one another;
• Opportunities exist in America for nearly all to attain the “American Dream.”

The composite of these corollary questions forms the “Connection Index.” To match the scoring of the traditional Alienation Index (where the higher the score the more alienated the respondents report feeling), the scores of the Connection Index are calculated by taking those who marked “Yes, I feel this way” to the positively framed questions—and the higher the score the more “connected” Americans feel. The score of this year’s Connection Index is 63.

What to make of the two scores: an Alienation Index score of 66 and a Connection Index score of 63?

Similar to the phenomenon whereby individuals are far rosier in their personal outlooks than they are about groups as a whole, Americans are far more cheerful in assessing their relationships with one another:

• 76% see the good in those they disagree with
• 71% have a friend who doesn’t share their views
• 57% think the “culture wars” are overblown in terms of how important the issues of those debates are to daily life
• 57% think most Americans get along with one another
• 56% believe that opportunities exist for nearly all to attain the American dream.

While alienated when assessing their own relationship with those wielding the instruments of power, people are much more optimistic when weighing their own personal relationships and those of other Americans. When you ask about their individual lived experiences, you see a tremendous difference in their feelings overall.

These benchmarks may seem mundane, but amid such a time of polarization they demonstrate a social resilience and enduring communal bonds that may provide a foundation on which to bind civic wounds and renew confidence in the institutions that make liberal democracy possible. 

This survey was conducted online in the United States by The Harris Poll from June 23, 2023 to June 27, 2023 among 2,025 US adults, ages 18+. Figures were weighted where necessary to align with actual proportions within the population. For additional information, please contact The Harris Poll’s Central Insights research team.