This week, the New York Times reported That the Trump administration compiles a list of words to erase government documents and so that federal workers refrain from using it. Lots of terms – like “dei”, “implicit bias“or” equity “- we can expect from the current administration. But I was surprised to see two terms on the list which are less often associated with politically correct than with largely accepted human psychology:”Belongs “and” feeling of belonging “.
Although the Trump administration can face criticisms to engage in the type of linguistic “culture of cancellation” that conservatives frequently condemn, there is a particular risk to reject a value that counts deeply for people from political parties – and this could be essential to combat mental health crises in the world.
This month, on the other side of the Atlantic, my colleagues from the belonging forum and I published the results of a study of 10,000 people who demonstrate why belonging is more than ever. THE 2025 belonging barometer reveals a crisis: almost a third (29%) of respondents in the United Kingdom frequently report solitudeWith 10% declaring that they had no close friends at all. However, loneliness is only part of history. The deeper problem discovered by our research is a serious erosion of trust, solidarity and mutual respect. Respondents have described feeling disconnected from their communities, devoid of significant participation and votes to decisions affecting their lives and missing the reciprocal links essential to a healthy society.
The situation in the United States is similar. Over the past two decades, social ties face to face between Americans fell radicallyWith a 30% drop in men and a 45% drop in adolescents. Confidence in American institutions has also dropped. Gallup Research shows that, almost the same period, the United States has left First in the last place Among the G7 countries in terms of confidence in government institutions in the media, including health care. This loss of confidence contributes significantly to social polarization, the weakening of community cohesion and the reduction of civic participation.
There is clear evidence that, in the world, we are faced with a deficit in belonging. It is a crisis that should concern people through the ideological spectrum.
For example, Gallup data reveal that the frequentation of the American church abandoned From around 70% in the 1990s to less than 50% today, while confidence in the main civic institutions – such as government, media and even schools – is reached historic stockings Among the Republicans and Democrats.
Looking at psychology researchThere is an irony of the efforts of the current administration to cancel the language of belonging. The efficiency of the slogan “Make America Grand again” concerns a generalized feeling of lost belonging among a segment of voters. For a decade, President Trump sought to fight against anxieties about a meaning of the missing community, identifyand goal. Maga has become a movement because he spoke to a desire deeply felt in a part of the electorate – a nostalgia For an America where people once felt a feeling of shared mission and deep connection and allegiance to their neighborhoods, their cities and their country.
Through Two decades of researchI concluded that membership is to be connected to other people, to be rooted in a place that feels like at home, to have a voice, to have the choice and to be treated with respect. This is what Trump claims to offer his voters. And there is a reason why such promises have resonated with many people. More than half a century ago, Abraham Maslow identified “belonging” as an emotional necessity and one of the most powerful animation forces in human psychology.
However, to significantly approach the crisis of belonging, it is important to look beyond “American-turned” strategies. In pioneering works on social identity theoryThe researchers in psychology Henri Tajfel and John C. Turner stressed that we often seek the simplicity of group groups compared to external groups to understand how we integrate into a disorderly world. And there is a strong case to argue that Maga’s imaginary vision is a company that has never really existed – or at least depended on exclusion large parts of the population. The path to the healing of the community and the restoration of the community lies in the culture strategies of mutual interests and the reciprocal link between the differences.
In times of disorders and changes, it is understandable that people reject nuanced ideas on social connection in favor of exclusive slogans.
But belonging should not be a controversy point. It is a response to what leads people of practically all political scratches.