47% of Americans ‘feel like a stranger in their own country,’ cultural alienation survey finds
The sense that the nation’s culture and way of life have dramatically changed is reflected in a PRRI “American Values” survey that gauged both political opinions and “cultural alienation.”
It found that 47 percent of Americans now say that things have changed so much, they “feel like a stranger in their own country.” A slim majority (51 percent) disagree.
Nearly six in 10 Republicans say that things have changed so much they feel alienated; 42 percent of Democrats agree.
Was there a better era to live in? Americans are divided on whether the country’s culture and way of life has changed for the better or worse since the 1950s. Fifty percent say such change is for the better, while 47 percent say culture has gotten worse according to the survey survey.
“There are significant partisan divides on this question, with 60 percent of Democrats and just 34 percent of Republicans believing American culture and way of life have improved since the 1950s; by contrast, 64 percent of Republicans say things have mostly changed for the worse,” the poll analysis said.
“The survey finds that partisans see two entirely different American futures. The survey shows Republicans’ vision for the country’s future is increasingly distant from the vision largely shared by Democrats and independents,” the analysis said.
The survey of 2,509 U.S. adults was conducted from Sept. 17 to Oct. 1 and released Monday.
Feeling threatened about the future: Whites’ emotional reactions to anticipated ethnic demographic changes.
Abstract
In many Western countries, the proportion of the population that is White will drop below 50% within the next century. Two experiments examined how anticipation of these future ethnic demographics affects current intergroup processes. In Study 1, White Americans who viewed actual demographic projections for a time when Whites are no longer a numerical majority felt more angry toward and fearful of ethnic minorities than Whites who did not view future projections. Whites who viewed the future projections also felt more sympathy for their ingroup than Whites in the control condition. In Study 2, the authors replicated the effects for intergroup emotions with a sample of White Canadians. White Canadians who thought about a future in which Whites were a numerical minority appraised the ingroup as more threatened, which mediated the effect of condition on intergroup emotions. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for race relations in increasingly diverse societies.