Americans Are Secretly Normal

It’s no secret that Americans increasingly believe their social landscapes are hostile to their outlooks and the expression thereof — whatever those outlooks happen to be. For years, poll respondents have reported feeling a growing pressure to self-censor. That finding has been replicated once again by the Social Pressure Index, a survey sponsored by the Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization Populace. Fifty-eight percent of Americans surveyed say that “most people cannot share their honest opinions about sensitive topics in society,” and 61 percent admit to keeping their own inflammatory views to themselves. One might assume that these respondents are keeping their grossly taboo and antisocial outlooks under their hats for the sake of social hygiene, but that’s not entirely accurate. Many Americans, it turns out, are shockingly normal, and they don’t want you to know it.

Axios broke down the survey’s methodology: “Respondents were provided a mix of traditional polling questions and other questions using a list experiment method, or item-count technique, that provides them with a greater sense of anonymity,” reporter Erica Pandey related. “This process allows researchers to find the gap between what people say versus how they privately feel.” They found that the social pressure Americans feel leads them to say they are more aggrieved, cynical, and fatalistic than they actually are.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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It’s no secret that Americans increasingly believe their social landscapes are hostile to their outlooks and the expression thereof — whatever those outlooks happen to be. For years, poll respondents have reported feeling a growing pressure to self-censor. That finding has been replicated once again by the Social Pressure Index, a survey sponsored by the Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization Populace. Fifty-eight percent of Americans surveyed say that “most people cannot share their honest opinions about sensitive topics in society,” and 61 percent admit to keeping their own inflammatory views to themselves. One might assume that these respondents are keeping their grossly taboo and antisocial outlooks under their hats for the sake of social hygiene, but that’s not entirely accurate. Many Americans, it turns out, are shockingly normal, and they don’t want you to know it.

Axios broke down the survey’s methodology: “Respondents were provided a mix of traditional polling questions and other questions using a list experiment method, or item-count technique, that provides them with a greater sense of anonymity,” reporter Erica Pandey related. “This process allows researchers to find the gap between what people say versus how they privately feel.” They found that the social pressure Americans feel leads them to say they are more aggrieved, cynical, and fatalistic than they actually are.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.