At Harmony Labs, we believe people’s macro beliefs about societal issues and opinions on government policy are shaped by deeply personal experiences in areas like health, money, and gender. These “deep stories,” or underlying beliefs about how the world works, drive how people see their roles and responsibilities, especially around complex issues like systemic racism and health inequities.

Studying equality is simple in theory, but messy in practice. Measuring group-level disparities does not offer insight into how individuals actually perceive equality, what drives those perceptions, and whether they are willing to work toward equality. That’s why we built the Deep Story Survey System, a tool that goes beyond surface opinions to reveal what truly motivates people’s choices.

For our first wave, Harmony Labs surveyed over 3,600 people nationwide, drawing from a pool of more than 250 questions about perceptions of equality, health journeys, and personal roles in the system—aiming to uncover not just what people believe, but why. We looked at four distinct audience segments—People Power, Tough Cookies, If You Say So, and Don’t Tread On Me—using a framework grounded in Shalom Schwartz’s universal human values.

To better understand how different audiences approach systemic racism and health inequity, we’ll dig deeper into constructs like human agency, deservingness, and fairness. Over the next few weeks, expect the Deep Story Dispatch to cover the following beats:

I. Where are we on equality?: Where each audience sits relative to the “narrative goal” needed to end systemic racism—the minimum set of narrative elements that, if believed and acted upon, would represent progress toward systemic equality

II. Human agency: Whether people feel they can change systems and make new rules that promote equality

III. Achieving equal outcomes: What people think needs to be done to eliminate disparities

IV. Tracking equality: What makes society fair, and whether people want to hold themselves accountable for measuring equality

V. Equality stories: What role each audience plays in envisioning, creating, and maintaining equality

Note that survey numbers are used directionally, highlighting patterns and contrasts between audiences, not as absolute measures of belief.

Part I: Where Are We On Equality?

Vision Precedes Progress

The dissatisfaction with how things are is all around us. People rage against broken systems, complain about corrupt politicians, and unfair outcomes with impressive consistency. Turn on any news channel, scroll through social media, or chat with neighbors–you'll find no shortage of people ready to tear down what isn’t working. But here’s what we’re not great at: imagining what comes next.

When it comes to equality, our research reveals a striking blindspot: audiences across values have trouble imagining what a truly equitable society could look like. While 62% of People Power, the community-oriented audience, can easily picture how an equitable society would actually function, that number plummets to just 38% for Don't Tread on Me, the authority-oriented audience. Other groups hover below 50%. This “imagination gap” signals that for many, equality remains a vague aspiration rather than a concrete vision. And realizing a true vision of equality means articulating the future we want, not just rejecting the way things are now.

Values Guide our Perception of Equality

We need a unifying vision that helps us define what success looks like, so that we can evaluate whether new stories can successfully address systemic racism. That’s where the narrative goal comes in. To map the landscape, we focused on four pillars: a shared vision for equality, belief in personal agency, commitment to equal outcomes, and support for tracking progress. Here’s where each audience stands: People Power consistently demonstrates the strongest support across all four pillars, reflecting their core values of equity and community. Don’t Tread On Me, by contrast, shows the least agreement: only 40% endorse group equality, and just 28% think tracking racial equity is very important. Although Tough Cookies and If You Say So are grounded in distinct core values—tradition and order for the former, autonomy and creativity for the latter—both show similar, moderate support (around 50%) for group equality and tracking racial equity. This unexpected alignment, despite their differing values, suggests an opportunity to create stories that resonate with both groups and potentially build broader support for systemic change.

Turning Agency into Action

60% of people in the US across all audiences believe everyone can influence and change societal systems. But when it comes to taking personal responsibility for racial equality, that consensus disappears. While 81% of People Power agree that “it is everyone’s responsibility to actively create racial equality in all aspects of life,” only 47% of Don’t Tread On Me agree. This reflects a gap between agency and personal responsibility, as if people think, “It’s possible to improve racial equality, but it’s not my job.” The same pattern is observed in health equity. Don’t Tread On Me is three times as likely as People Power to believe that everyone has equal health opportunities (57% vs 19%). Both groups believe systems can change, but they disagree about whether change is needed. The data reveal that everyone sees a different piece of the story. There’s room for new stories that help individualist audiences like Don’t Tread On Me and If You Say So see that the system doesn’t give everyone the same personal agency or freedom to make the change that they value for themselves. At the same time, there’s an opportunity to help more deterministic audiences like People Power, who see the system as overwhelmingly powerful, recognize that individuals can and do succeed despite systemic barriers, and that personal action can make a difference. By bridging these perspectives, new stories can help all audiences see both the limits and possibilities of agency within our systems, and inspire broader agreement with racial and health equity as goals.

What this means for equality stories

Our findings make one thing clear: efforts to advance equality—whether through policy, programs, or movements—simply aren’t complete when they don’t incorporate the perspectives of groups who recognize progress in different ways. It’s encouraging that community-oriented audiences can envision a positive future for systemic equality, but that vision alone isn’t enough; they need the drive and belief in personal agency that more individualistic audiences bring. On the other hand, individualists’ focus on action is vital, but without recognizing systemic barriers, their efforts might fall short of lasting change.

This is why the path forward is about aligning on the destination, not about forcing consensus on how to get there. We need a multitude of stories that speak to different values and perspectives, so that everyone can see themselves in the journey toward equality, even if their routes are different.

In the next survey dispatch, we’ll explore narrative opportunities to bring audiences closer to both envisioning and acting together for a future where equality is the norm. Watch this space for more insights.