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Many Americans endorse or are at least neutral about the practice of using personal connections to help someone get a job, a new YouGov poll finds. 42% say it is very or somewhat good to use personal contacts to help a family member or close friend get a job — even if that person likely wouldn't have had the opportunity without the help — while 17% say it is bad and 33% say it is neither good nor bad.
But more Americans emphasize qualifications over relationships when the two are pitted against each other. When considering a hiring manager choosing between a qualified family member or friend and a more-qualified person they do not know, 64% say the manager should choose the more-qualified stranger, while 16% say they should choose the qualified family member or friend.
Most Americans see personal connections as important to professional success: 78% say connections are very or somewhat important to getting ahead professionally in the U.S. today, including 36% who say they are very important; 10% say they are not very or not at all important. Connections are perceived as less important to achieving success and happiness overall: 69% say they are very or somewhat important, and 19% say they're not very or not at all important.
Experience with the use of these kinds of connections is common. 42% of Americans say they have used their personal contacts to help connect a family member or friend with a job opportunity, and 37% say they have benefited from a family member or friend doing the same for them. 27% have been on both ends, and 39% have done neither.
One-quarter (25%) of Americans say they have missed out on a job opportunity because someone else used personal contacts to secure the position.
Majorities of Americans say nepotism is common in nine of the 10 fields we asked about — but not in equal measure. The question defined nepotism as giving someone an advantage in their career because of their family relationships or connections. 83% say nepotism is very or somewhat common in politics, and a similar share say the same about business (82%) and acting (78%). Majorities say nepotism is common in media (73%), finance (70%), music (67%), law (66%), sports (61%), and academia (59%). Medicine is the only one of the 10 fields that less than half of Americans (46%) think nepotism is common in.
— Carl Bialik contributed to this article
See the results of this survey
Methodology: The August 13 - 16, 2026 poll was conducted among 1,100 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov's opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, U.S. region, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent's most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 33% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty Images (Zia Soleil)
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