What do Americans think culture means? [Reality checks ft. Sabrina Lynch]

The latest episode of Reality checks with Brian Reitz features Sabrina Lynch, Head of Strategy at Nuance Matters, a cultural offering from Momentum Worldwide.

“It’s not a news trend, it’s not a fad, and it’s not something that happens in one particular moment,” said Lynch. “Culture is about human behavior and the communities that propel it. I just wanted to really help level-set our understanding so we can target culture in the way that it needs to be: with respect.”

To uncover the reality behind how Americans think about culture, Sabrina Lynch and the YouGov team collaborated on a five-question survey of 1,000 Americans, covering how well people think they understand culture, what they think it is, how much they value their own vision of culture, and if they see their culture accurately reflected in the media.

Americans are confident they understand what culture means

A significant majority of Americans feel confident in their understanding of culture, something that didn’t come as a surprise to Lynch, who said, “Because of all these different connotations of what this word means, it has a different definition by so many different individuals that they will see the one they hold truest to them is the right version.”

The survey reveals that 86% of US adults believe they understand the concept of culture either "very well" (26%) or "somewhat well" (60%).

Only a small fraction, 14% in total, express a lack of understanding, with 10% saying they don't understand culture "very well" and 4% admitting they don't understand it "well at all".

Younger Americans are more confident in their understanding of culture than older Americans

While Baby Boomers show the highest percentage of those who believe they understand culture "very well" (28%), they also have the largest proportion who feel they don't understand it well (17%).

Meanwhile, Gen Z shows the most confidence overall, with 91% saying they understand culture either "very well" or "somewhat well" - the highest combined percentage across all generations. Millennials are not far behind, with 88% saying they understand culture well.

So, what exactly do Americans think is culture?

Among all Americans, ethnicity and nationality emerged as the top two factors most likely to be considered culture, with 31% and 18% of respondents ranking them first, respectively.

In contrast, media and entertainment news, along with online community, often referred to as “The Culture” colloquially, were least likely to be viewed as culture, with 35% and 30% of Americans ranking them last.

Religion appears to have the most even distribution across rankings, indicating a lack of consensus among Americans on its cultural significance.

Notably, local residence was less likely to be seen as culture compared to nationality. The timing of the survey, which was conducted on July 4, potentially heightened the awareness and importance of national identity.

What do different US generations think is culture?

Older Americans, particularly Baby Boomers and Gen X, are more likely to associate culture with ethnicity, with 55% of both groups ranking it as a top cultural factor.

In contrast, Gen Z shows a stronger inclination towards media and entertainment news as a cultural element, with 15% ranking it highly compared to just 5% of Baby Boomers.

Conversely, language appears to be less significant for Gen Z, with only 21% considering it a primary cultural factor, while other generations hover around 26-29%.

Gen X, sometime referred to as “The Forgotten Generation,” appears to value generational identity the least among all age groups, with only 19% ranking it as a top cultural factor.

Does race impact perception of culture?

Black and Hispanic respondents place a much higher emphasis on ethnicity as a cultural identifier, with 64% and 63% respectively ranking it as their top choice, compared to 46% of White respondents.

Nationality is seen as the second most important aspect of culture, with Black respondents (54%) more likely to prioritize it than White (46%) or Hispanic (45%) respondents.

Generation and age are also perceived differently across racial groups, with White respondents (28%) more likely to consider it a cultural factor compared to Black (16%) and Hispanic (18%) respondents.

Language also shows variation, with Hispanic respondents (30%) placing more importance on it as a cultural element than White (27%) or Black (20%) respondents.

Few Americans think their vision of culture is worse than the average American's

Americans across the country are more than three times as likely to believe their vision of culture is superior to that of the average American than to think it’s worse (34% vs 10%).

However, more Americans think that their vision of culture is consistent with the rest of American than better (36% vs 34%), though this trend diverges in the Northeast and West census regions.

The contrast is particularly pronounced in the West, where residents display a notably stronger conviction in the superiority of their cultural outlook.

Most Americans think entertainment fails to capture their vision of culture

Social entertainment platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube resonate most strongly with Gen Z, with 39% feeling their vision of culture is captured correctly there.

Interestingly, while politics ranks third overall, it's more important to Gen Z (21%) and Baby Boomers (17%) in reflecting their cultural views than among Millennials and Gen X.

Most notably, most survey respondents and 64% of Baby Boomers, felt like none of the listed options accurately captured their vision of culture, suggesting a potential disconnect between Americans’ nuanced cultural perspectives and not just mainstream media, but emerging, niche media as well.

Gen Z more likely than Baby Boomers to think their culture is increasing in importance

The Reality checks survey with Sabrina Lynch concluded by asking respondents if they felt their vision of culture becoming more or less important to society.

Overall, more Americans (31%) believe their culture is decreasing in importance rather than increasing (21%), with 27% seeing no change.

Among Gen Z respondents, 29% believe their specific culture is increasing in importance, significantly outweighing the 17% who see it as decreasing.

This positive outlook stands in sharp contrast to Baby Boomers, for whom only 15% perceive their culture as gaining importance, while a substantial 42% believe it is declining.