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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans and Britons largely agree on where they find beauty in their daily lives, according to a new ÓÅÃÛ´«Ã½study for The Catholic University of America. But they differ sharply when it comes to their work, with 54% of Americans and 39% of Britons saying they encounter beauty there.

The study asked adults in both countries whether they personally encounter beauty — however they define it — in each of 15 areas of life. Nature and the outdoors are among the most common places where people experience beauty in both countries (96% in the U.S. and 94% in the U.K.), as are relationships (89% and 85%, respectively).

The two countries diverge more on religious or spiritual moments (70% vs. 41%), hobbies or crafts (79% vs. 69%), digital or virtual environments (41% vs. 32%), and their work (54% vs. 39%). The gap for work holds regardless of employment status and education level. In every group, U.S. adults are more likely than U.K. adults to name their work as a source of beauty.

It is unclear exactly what shapes experiences of finding beauty in work, but one related difference stands out: Employees in the U.S. are far more likely than those in the U.K. to be engaged at work, according to Gallup’s. Engagement measures the psychological attachment that workers have to their work, their team and their employer. In 2025, 32% of U.S. workers were engaged, compared with only 10% of U.K. workers.

Relationships, Success Are Top Sources of Beauty in Work for Britons and Americans

Adults who said they find beauty in their work were then asked which aspects of their work bring them moments of beauty.

Relationships top the list in both countries: 64% in either country say they find beauty in relationships or interactions with people. Similar percentages find beauty in success or accomplishment (63% in the U.S. and 59% in the U.K.). Americans are more likely to find beauty in the purpose of their work or in how it is done, while only about one in five adults in both countries find it in their physical or digital environment.

Americans More Often Experience Their Work as Beautiful

In a separate question, all adults were asked, “In the past month, how often have you experienced work as beautiful?” Response options ranged from “never” to “every day.”

Americans experience beauty in their work more frequently than Britons do. Nearly one in four U.S. adults (24%) say they have experienced beauty in their work at least three or four times a week in the past month, compared with 14% of U.K. adults. At the other end of the scale, 33% of U.S. adults and 42% of U.K. adults say they never have.

Experiencing Beauty in Work Is Associated With Less Burnout

Respondents in both countries were asked how often, in the past 30 days, they had felt burned out. The question measured burnout in general, not work-related burnout specifically, and was asked alongside items such as feeling restless or nervous.

Adults who experience beauty in their work more often report less burnout overall, a pattern that holds in both countries. Among both U.S. and U.K. adults, 28% of those who have not experienced beauty in their work at all in the past month say they have felt burned out most or all of the time, double the rate among those who have experienced beauty in their work every day (14%).

This relationship holds even after accounting for demographic factors such as race/ethnicity, gender and religious identity, as well as personality traits.

Bottom Line

Work stands out as one of the clearest differences in where Americans and Britons find beauty. Americans are more likely than Britons to encounter beauty in their work and to experience it often. In both countries, more frequent encounters with finding beauty in work are associated with lower burnout, though more research is needed to untangle this relationship.

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