Four Distinct Groups Comprise American's Engagements

A new Pew Research Center study finds that Americans’ engagement with news, politics, religion and civic life falls into four distinct groups rather than a single spectrum of activity.

Conducted as part of the Pew-Knight Initiative, the report reveals that U.S. adults show varied patterns of participation across political action, community involvement, religious attendance and news consumption. Instead of dividing neatly along one dimension from highly engaged to disengaged, people cluster into four meaningful segments that reflect different priorities and behaviors.

The Four Groups of Engagement

• Mobilizers make up 9% of U.S. adults and stand out as the most active across nearly every category. They volunteer, attend local government meetings, donate to political causes, follow news closely and attend religious services at high rates. They are distinguished most sharply by their direct political involvement: they are far more likely than others to volunteer for campaigns, contact elected officials and take other proactive political steps.
• Connectors represent 28% of adults. They are heavily involved in community life, charitable giving and religious attendance. Like Mobilizers, they vote at high rates, participate in groups and donate to nonpolitical causes. However, they are much less inclined to engage in explicit political actions such as campaigning or lobbying officials.
• Spectators account for 31% of U.S. adults. They are significantly less active in civic or political activities than Mobilizers and Connectors, but they consume news at comparably high levels. When engaging with news online, Spectators tend to participate privately — through chats or liking posts — rather than publicly commenting or sharing their own content.
• Outsiders comprise the remaining 31%. They show the lowest overall participation across the measured activities, including news following. Yet they are not entirely detached: 41% reported voting in the 2024 election, and 24% attend religious services at least monthly.

Key Insight from the Study

The Pew-Knight Initiative analysis underscores that civic and political engagement in America is multidimensional. People’s involvement often centers on specific areas — such as community ties or news interest — rather than a uniform level of overall activism. This framework offers a more nuanced understanding of how different segments of the public connect with democratic and social institutions. The full report provides deeper data on the demographic characteristics and attitudes that define each group.