{"id":39046,"date":"2025-03-22T11:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T11:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=39046"},"modified":"2025-04-06T16:44:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T16:44:54","slug":"avoiding-your-neighbor-because-of-how-they-voted-democracy-needs-you-to-talk-to-them-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/avoiding-your-neighbor-because-of-how-they-voted-democracy-needs-you-to-talk-to-them-instead\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding your neighbor because of how they voted? Democracy needs you to talk to them instead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Betsy Sinclair<\/a>, Washington University in St. Louis<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you angry about politics right now? Seething? You\u2019re not alone. According to the Mood of the Nation Poll<\/a> by researchers at Penn State, 9 in 10 Americans can name a recent news event or something about American politics that made them angry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political scientists Steven Webster<\/a>, Elizabeth Connors<\/a> and I<\/a> have investigated what happens to people\u2019s social networks \u2013 their friends, family and neighbors \u2013 when partisan anger takes over<\/a>. For example, suppose your neighbor is a member of the opposite political party. You\u2019ve always watered their plants when they go on vacation. Given the news these days and how angry you\u2019re feeling, what will you say when they ask for help during their next trip?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found that when someone is angry with the opposite party, they avoid people with those views<\/a>. That can include not assisting neighbors with various tasks, avoiding social gatherings attended by people from the other side, and refusing to date people who vote differently. It means being disappointed if your son or daughter marries a supporter of the opposing party, and even severing close friendships or distancing yourself from close relatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We see that political anger disrupts ordinary life \u2013 coffee with a friend \u2013 as well as more major life decisions. Political anger breaks our social networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People rely on their relationships to understand our world \u2013 and to vote<\/a>. The more we isolate ourselves from people who see things differently, the easier it is to misunderstand them, pushing us to separate even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stereotype vs. reality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During the Obama administration, my collaborators and I asked a nationally representative sample of voters to describe their stereotypes about the opposite party. Our questions were intended to tap into perceptions of the other side\u2019s lifestyles and cultural values, in addition to policy attitudes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, we wanted to establish each side\u2019s actual views. Our 2012-2016 study<\/a> asked around 1,300 Americans whether they agreed with statements that are often associated with one party or the other \u2013 including creationism, guns, taxes and eco-friendliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, 42.5% of all Republicans we surveyed agreed with the statement that \u201cthis country would be safer if every law-abiding citizen possessed a firearm,\u201d versus 25.1% of independents and 14.2% of Democrats. Meanwhile, 38.7% of Democrats agreed that \u201cthis country would be better if every citizen drove an electric car,\u201d compared with 22% of independents and 11.4% of Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Which party do you associate with these cars? 3alexd\/iStock via Getty Images Plus<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, we went back to the same voters and asked them a different question: What percentage of Democrats and Republicans did they think would agree with these statements?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We saw dramatic evidence of stereotypes. For example, only 19% of Democrats agreed that all Americans should pay more taxes, but more than 80% of Republicans believed the percentage to be higher. The same pattern occurred with electric cars and firearms. Just over 42% of Republicans agreed that all \u201claw-abiding\u201d citizens should have a gun, but the typical Democrat believed the percentage to be 60%-80%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Americans do not understand each other across the red-blue divide. Importantly, respondents with more ideologically extreme views themselves had less accurate perceptions of the other party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoiding the Joneses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The more extreme our beliefs become, the harder it will be to understand our neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suppose you are a Republican. You learn that your Democratic neighbors believe that everyone should drive an electric car, marijuana should be legal in all states, and universal health care should be available to all citizens. Or suppose you are a Democrat, and you learn that your Republican neighbors believe that humans and dinosaurs walked the Earth at the same time, that elementary school students should be required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, and that a fence should be built between the U.S. and Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would you want to be friends?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These hypothetical neighbors have stereotypical beliefs \u2013 and most Americans say they do not want those neighbors in their social networks. Specifically, according to our 2023 study<\/a>, they reported not wanting to become friends, not having this neighbor over for a family meal, and not feeling comfortable allowing their children to play with the neighbor\u2019s kids, among other activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stereotypes don\u2019t just drive individual people and families apart; they make neighborhoods less cohesive. We ascribe stereotypical beliefs to people who are members of the opposite party \u2013 and then we react to these stereotypes, not to our neighbors themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
You\u2019re still neighbors, no matter how you vote. monkeybusinessimages\/iStock via Getty Images Plus<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Social citizens<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cutting off those in-person relationships isn\u2019t just a problem for safety and friendliness around the block. It\u2019s a problem for democracy because Americans need relationships with people whose politics are different than their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A majority of Americans have social circles that are politically homogeneous. Even in 2020, 53% of Republicans said that their network was exclusively composed of Donald Trump supporters<\/a>, and 55% of Democrats said that their network was exclusively composed of Joe Biden supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her book \u201cThrough the Grapevine<\/a>,\u201d political scientist Taylor Carlson<\/a> documents that approximately 1 in 3 American voters mostly learn about politics from socially transmitted information: news they get from talking with friends or scrolling on social media. Relying on these sources is particularly problematic in social networks that are homogeneous, as exposure to information from someone in your own party can lead people to have more extreme positions. Carlson\u2019s work highlights that voters who rely on friends to shape their views rely upon a resource that is heavily biased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my own book \u201cThe Social Citizen<\/a>,\u201d I investigated the influence peers have on political decisions, from voting and donating to identifying with a political party. For example, if a neighbor knocks on your door and asks you to turn out to vote, you are 4%-11% more likely to go cast a ballot than if a stranger knocked on your door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democracy in action<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What can we do to remedy the fractures? We need to understand each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. has a long tradition of political dialogue. Indeed, after a brutal election tested their friendship, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson did not exchange letters for 11 years. But the pair resumed their correspondence<\/a> in 1812 with Adams\u2019 statement \u2013 later echoed by Jefferson \u2013 \u201cYou and I, ought not to die, before We have explained ourselves to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Adams and Jefferson understood in the 19th century still applies to the divisions in American society today: Reconciliation requires understanding. These conversations are frequently painful and hard; data scientists have noted that Thanksgiving dinners with guests who cross party lines are frequently shorter<\/a>. But as my own research shows<\/a>, we are most able to persuade people with whom we have the closest ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democracy challenges us to participate in more ways than simply by voting. It challenges everyone to understand those around us and seek what is in the collective best interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we have the most influence over people in our social networks. So that friend you\u2019re really angry with about their politics? It\u2019s time to give them a call and have a conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Betsy Sinclair<\/a>, Professor and Chair of Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Betsy Sinclair, Washington University in St. Louis Are you angry about politics right now? Seething? You\u2019re not alone. According to the Mood of the Nation Poll by researchers at Penn State, 9 in 10 Americans can name a recent news event or something about American politics that made them angry. Political scientists Steven Webster, Elizabeth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":39048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[46,10,118,36,4,38],"tags":[8608,16172,9033,196,4009,885,891,886,860,868,16171,6351,5098,457,735],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39046"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39163,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39046\/revisions\/39163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}