Unlike the bulk of opinion polling or survey research, The New America Papers research detects and explains deeper drivers of our behavior, both conscious and unconscious.

Conflicts often arise when people believe they are too different from one another to find common ground. The IOOW-2000 typologies identify positive commonalities among societal groups which, in turn, provide valuable conceptual maps. These maps show greater connection than may be apparent among the many diverse tendencies in American society.

Once The 8 American Types were established, we began to search for a single continuum that would embrace a combination of indicators, including cooperation, a holistic or integral perspective, spirituality, and a positive outlook. This led to the development of a statistical scale that came to be called "Positive Future-Cooperative Integrative" (or PFCI for short).

In looking to account for differences in voting patterns, important personal and social factors were discovered that impact voting. These include emotional stress, feeling disconnected from people, a focus on standard of living, and worry about the future. This led to the development of another scale that came to be called "Social Material Stress" (or SMS for short). This additional scale also demonstrates a close relationship to voting.

• The Positive Future-Cooperative Integrative (PFCI) scale uses ten separate items to measure people's sense of connection to society and life, forgiveness, openness to diversity, and identification with social and spiritual awakening.
• The Social Material Stress (SMS) scale uses ten other items to measure people's sense of disconnection from society, concerns with their material standard of living, reporting of emotional problems, and a generally pessimistic view of the future.

Crossing these scales against one another in a simple vertical and horizontal manner produced a grid or map divided into quarters. This further served as a very useful and practical backdrop against which to compare a wide variety of topics.

Quadrant Map of U.S. Households Showing Positive Future-Cooperative Integrative by Social Material Stress (PFCI by SMS)

The color-shaded areas above provide a true sense of the dispersal of the U.S. population over the five PFCI typology zones. These were created by comparing the PFCI and SMS statistical scales.

Our Quadrant Maps

Through extensive statistical analyses, conceptual quadrant maps were produced to show both differences and commonalities among Americans. These maps provide strategic support for the development of new social, cultural, and political initiatives for positive change.