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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: 5, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday January 28 2020, @03:20AM (5 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday January 28 2020, @03:20AM (#949809) Journal

    He may be partisan, but he's not wrong. In fact, *your response* is the epitome of the partisanship the OP is decrying, not edIII's post.

    Why? Because instead of taking what he says and comparing it to observable reality, *you* immediately clap your hands over your ears and commit the genetic fallacy ("It's partisan, so it's wrong!").

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @04:43AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @04:43AM (#949881)

    ^ the only one getting tired of winning, being correct about humanity's horrors has got to wear you out!

    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday January 29 2020, @01:10AM

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Wednesday January 29 2020, @01:10AM (#950367) Journal

      Like you would not fucking believe. I've seen and lived through some shit that killed better people, and I know because some of those people were friends.

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
  • (Score: 2) by slinches on Tuesday January 28 2020, @06:55AM

    by slinches (5049) on Tuesday January 28 2020, @06:55AM (#949952)

    I didn't make any claim of right or wrong. I said his post was vitriolic and divisive, which is orthogonal to whether I agree with the sentiment or not. If you read partisanship into saying the that the tone he used contributes to the political divides, that says more about you than it does me.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 28 2020, @08:00PM (1 child)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 28 2020, @08:00PM (#950202) Journal

    Because instead of taking what he says and comparing it to observable reality

    Look at what EdIII is applying criticism to. So much of it is vague out-groups: "conservatives", "greed of the rich", "others", "conservative snowflakes", "Conservatives, and especially religious conservatives", and "self-professed conservative leaders of morality". There are only two explicit targets: Trump and "Some conservative cunt". He's more on the mark with those.

    Having said that, I still think he's much improved over a few years back and there's way too many people generalizing in this discussion for me to single him out.

    and commit the genetic fallacy ("It's partisan, so it's wrong!").

    Well, that's what the story is about. Some degree of wrongness is baked in when you generalize, right?

    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday January 29 2020, @01:09AM

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Wednesday January 29 2020, @01:09AM (#950366) Journal

      Oh bitch bitch bitch. When the generalities are that close to correct, I personally will forgive a little sloppiness on that measure. "Some degree of wrongness," sure, but not a hell of a lot.

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...