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posted by janrinok on Monday January 27 2020, @05:46PM   Printer-friendly

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Political polarization among Americans has grown rapidly in the last 40 years—more than in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia or Germany—a phenomenon possibly due to increased racial division, the rise of partisan cable news and changes in the composition of the Democratic and Republican parties.

That's according to new research co-authored by Jesse Shapiro, a professor of political economy at Brown University. The study, conducted alongside Stanford University economists Levi Boxell and Matthew Gentzkow, was released on Monday, Jan. 20, as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper.

In the study, Shapiro and colleagues present the first ever multi-nation evidence on long-term trends in "affective polarization"—a phenomenon in which citizens feel more negatively toward other political parties than toward their own. They found that in the U.S., affective polarization has increased more dramatically since the late 1970s than in the eight other countries they examined—the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden.

"A lot of analysis on polarization is focused on the U.S., so we thought it could be interesting to put the U.S. in context and see whether it is part of a global trend or whether it looks more exceptional," Shapiro said. "We found that the trend in the U.S. is indeed exceptional."

Using data from four decades of public opinion surveys conducted in the nine countries, the researchers used a so-called "feeling thermometer" to rate attitudes on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 reflected no negative feelings toward other parties. They found that in 1978, the average American rated the members of their own political party 27 points higher than members of the other major party. By 2016, Americans were rating their own party 45.9 points higher than the other party, on average. In other words, negative feelings toward members of the other party compared to one's own party increased by an average of 4.8 points per decade.

The researchers found that polarization had also risen in Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland in the last 40 years, but to a lesser extent. In the U.K., Australia, Germany, Norway and Sweden, polarization decreased.

More information: Levi Boxell et al, Cross-Country Trends in Affective Polarization, (2020). DOI: 10.3386/w26669


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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Monday January 27 2020, @06:26PM (5 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Monday January 27 2020, @06:26PM (#949451) Journal

    GODS! They're hunting porpoises!

    Shit...what won't you Americans shoot at? ;)

    Yeah...you make good points!

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    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
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  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday January 27 2020, @09:34PM (3 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday January 27 2020, @09:34PM (#949583)

    Of course they're hunting porpoises. Have you seen the damage wild herds of porpoises do to the plains of Kansas and Nebraska?

    Or was that a dream I had?

    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday January 27 2020, @09:42PM (2 children)

      by Gaaark (41) on Monday January 27 2020, @09:42PM (#949588) Journal

      In my dreams, Kansas and Nebraska girls are climbing on top of MY porpoise.... wild herds of Kansas and Nebraska girls...... OHhhhhh YEAHHHHH! :)

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday January 27 2020, @09:55PM (1 child)

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday January 27 2020, @09:55PM (#949598)

        In my dreams, Kansas and Nebraska girls are fixing my truck (if you know what I mean).

        No, really, it has been running poorly lately, and needs a tune up.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27 2020, @11:02PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27 2020, @11:02PM (#949641)

          I'd give you some advice but I don't want to be spam modded by the antipha Buzztard.

  • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday January 28 2020, @01:06AM

    by hemocyanin (186) on Tuesday January 28 2020, @01:06AM (#949715) Journal

    Oh hush -- it's the Japanese hunting cetaceans and their gun control is insane, thus gun control is insane.