Thread by @Yascha_Mounk

Democrats have an absurd, denunciatory idea of what Republicans believe—and vice versa.

Worse, the institutions that are meant to remedy misperceptions, from universities to news outlets, may actually make them worse.

Me @TheAtlantic

[Short Thread.]

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

American politics is defined by negative partisanship: not by whom we like, but by whom we hate.

So... why do we hate the other side so much?

According to a new study by @MiC_Global, a big part of the reason is that we falsely ascribe extreme opinions to our adversaries.

Take Republicans:

* Republicans believe that only half of Democrats are “proud to be American.” Actually, 8 out of 10 are.

* Republicans also believe that only 3 in 10 Democrats oppose open borders. Actually, 7 in 10 do.

Or take Democrats:

* Democrats believe that only half of Republicans favor "properly controlled" immigration. Actually, 8 out of 10 do.

* Democrats also believe that only half of Republicans believe that racism still exists. Actually, 8 out of 10 do.

Is America’s partisan divide due to ignorance? And, if so, might education or exposure to political news fix the problem?

Depressingly, the data implies the opposite: The more Americans know, and the fancier their degree, the more they are likely to caricature their opponents.

With the exception of the old broadcasting networks, consumption of virtually any forms of news – the NYT or the WSJ, Daily Kos or Breitbart – increases what the study calls The Perception Gap.

Media only helps to narrow the perception gap when its partisan lean goes against the inclination of the consumer:

So if Republicans watch CNN, or Democrats watch Fox, their perception gap slightly narrows. Just about everything else makes things worse.

Do universities fare any better?

Sadly not.

Far from learning more about their ideological adversaries, Democrats who are highly educated are way more likely to hold caricatural views about Republicans than Democrats who only have a high school degree

Interestingly, the same dynamic does not hold for Republicans.

Republicans who dropped out of high school, for example, have a bigger perception gap than those with a postgraduate degree.

Why does education increase the perception gap for Democrats but not Republicans?

Likely answer:

Highly-educated Republicans tend to be exposed to lots of liberals.

Highly-educated Democrats tend to have an ideologically homogeneous friend group.

To be clear, then, this study does not measure the direct impact of education or news consumption on the perception gap.

But it does suggest that these institutions are, at best, highly ineffective in attenuating it (and may, at worst, actively compound it).

My takeaway?

It is deeply worrying that Americans now have so little understanding of their political adversaries.

It is downright disturbing that the very institutions that ought to help us become better informed may actually be deepening our mutual incomprehension.

[End.]

Also, check out the cool website for the report - and take a quiz to see how far you are off! - here:

perceptiongap.us

Finally, this study neither argues nor assumes that each side's positions are morally equivalent.

But even if you strongly prefer the views of one side, as I do, you should be worried about our tendency to caricature the positions of the other side.

Is that so hard to see?