This report was prepared for use by the National Institute of Civil Discourse (NICD) in their ongoing project to make their messaging as effective as possible. To improve NICD’s communication, this report considers multiple terms related to civility and civil discourse and the impression different audiences have of these terms. The report relies on data about these impressions collected and organized by the Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) Civic Language Perceptions Project [1]. This report considers the following audiences: faith communities, people actively engaged in policy and elections work, conservatives, young adults, and non-white people. The report will conclude with a discussion of which terms the NICD should use and which they should avoid when conducting communications and suggestions for further research in this area.
Overall, this report has made it clear that the term ‘unity’ is perceived well by all of these targeted audiences. Each of the audiences considered here had a relatively high frequency of positive impressions regarding the term. The audiences had particularly varied impressions of the term ‘diversity.’ Some audiences had positive impressions of the term more frequently than others. Some audiences had relatively high negative impressions of the term. Terms such as ‘civic engagement,’ ‘civic health,’ ‘civic infrastructure,’ and ‘civil society’ had the highest number of respondents who said they were unfamiliar with them.
[1] Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), and Citizen Data. 2022. “PACE Civic Language Perceptions Project.” www.PACEfunders.org/language.
