New study: Political animosity is global
2023-08-02
(Press-News.org)
EAST LANSING, Mich. – A new study by an interdisciplinary team of researchers across six different countries found that affective polarization, or the tendency to dislike people who belong to opposing political parties while favoring people from their own political party, is a global bias — not just an American one. The research further indicates that the dislike grows stronger when two people think about political issues the same way but come away with different beliefs about those issues.
For instance, two people from two separate political parties both may think that tax policy and trade should be thought of together as a package. The researchers found that even though these two people share a way of thinking about political issues, they will have the largest degree of affective polarization if they end up having different conclusions. This suggests that sharing cognitive frameworks with political outgroups can intensify negative attitudes toward them.
“You can imagine how frustrating it is to interact with someone who seems to think about things in a similar way and who shares the same basic logic of how things work as you do, but yet come to opposite conclusions,” said Mark Brandt, an associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University and a researcher in the field of social psychology. “We think that sharing a way of thinking about issues with a political outgroup is likely a signal that they are competitors in the political system.”
This study, led by Felicity Turner-Zwinkels, a social psychologist from Tilburg University’s Department of Sociology, investigated the underlying factors contributing to affective polarization. The findings indicate that across many different countries, we dislike political outgroups the more we disagree with them.
“This study matters because we examined a topic (affective polarization) that is heavily discussed and studied in America and brought it to a global scale. This shows that it is global and not just an American phenomenon,” said Brandt. “People should care because it helps better explain the way humans interact with each other in the realm of politics.”
“Why do we dislike each other so much even when we think about an issue similarly? This helps explain it,” said Brandt. “This tells us that these feelings are widespread. Americans might think we’re special in our political entrenchment, but it turns out we’re not.”
The research suggests two potential interventions that were not directly tested: highlighting shared opinions across political groups, which could reduce affective polarization, and encouraging individuals to contemplate political issues and their interconnectedness in new and unique ways.
By Shelly DeJong
###
Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 165 years. One of the world's leading research universities, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery to make a better, safer, healthier world for all while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 400 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.
For MSU news on the Web, go to MSUToday. Follow MSU News on Twitter at twitter.com/MSUnews.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2023-08-02
The public can follow a team of scientists aboard the research vessel Sikuliaq as they spend the month of August studying conditions that existed on the Bering Land Bridge during the last ice age.
The project, led by University of Alaska Fairbanks geology professor Sarah Fowell, will collect samples from beneath the sea floor to learn about the vegetation and climate of the region about 25,000 years ago.
The project team will share updates during their journey via several digital and social media channels:
Facebook
Aboard the ...
2023-08-02
Treatment with modern antidepressants may help prevent patients with bipolar disorder from relapsing into a depressive episode, according to an international clinical trial led by researchers at the University of British Columbia.
The findings, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, challenge current clinical practice guidelines and could change how bipolar depression is managed globally.
“Treating depression in bipolar disorder is challenging and the depressive episodes can be quite devastating for patients ...
2023-08-02
AURORA, Colo. (August 2, 2023) – Individuals with Down syndrome, the genetic condition caused by triplication of human chromosome 21, also known as trisomy 21, display a very high risk of hospitalization and mortality after developing lung infections. Respiratory disease is second only to congenital heart defects as a cause of death among children with Down syndrome, and lower respiratory tract pathology is the most common cause of acute hospital admissions in this population. Furthermore, adults with Down syndrome have a much higher risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19. Despite many research efforts, ...
2023-08-02
The Science
In chemical reactions, molecules proceed during their transformation from reactants into reaction products through a critical geometry. In chemistry, geometry refers to the arrangement of atoms in a molecule. Scientists often call critical geometry in reactions a transition state. This state has an almost incomprehensibly short lifetime of less than one millionth of one millionth of a second. Scientists recently captured a critical geometry using the ultra-high speed “electron camera” at SLAC. In combination with quantum simulations of the reaction, ...
2023-08-02
Wildfires are an ancient force shaping the environment, but they have grown in frequency, range and intensity in response to a changing climate. At the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, scientists are working on several fronts to better understand and predict these events and what they mean for the carbon cycle and biodiversity.
Two months into the 2023 peak summer fire season from June through August, Canadian wildfires had burned more than 25 million acres of land, disrupted the lives of millions and spread beyond the traditional confines of western Canada east to Nova Scotia. The phenomenon attracted renewed attention as smoke drifted to heavily populated ...
2023-08-02
When driving through a rainstorm, traction is key. If your tires lack sufficient tread, your vehicle will slip and slide and you won’t have the grip needed to maneuver safely. When torrential rains hit nearshore, shallow water ecosystems, sea urchins experience a similar challenge. Heavy precipitation can alter the concentration of salt in the ocean waters causing lower salinity levels. Even a slight change in salinity can affect the ability of sea urchins to securely attach their tube feet to their surroundings – like tires gripping the road. This ...
2023-08-02
HOUSTON – (Aug. 2, 2023) – Rice University physicists have shown that immutable topological states, which are highly sought for quantum computing, can be entangled with other, manipulable quantum states in some materials.
“The surprising thing we found is that in a particular kind of crystal lattice, where electrons become stuck, the strongly coupled behavior of electrons in d atomic orbitals actually act like the f orbital systems of some heavy fermions,” said Qimiao Si, co-author of a study about the research in Science Advances.
The unexpected find provides ...
2023-08-02
In 2022, a team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine discovered that a little-known enzyme called MAPK4 is involved in the growth of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and its resistance to certain therapies. Looking into the details of this novel role of MAPK4, the researchers have now identified a strategy that can potentially control MAPK4-promoted growth in TNBC and other cancers. The study, published in PLOS Biology, opens new options for treating this devastating disease.
“Some cancers depend on MAPK4 for their growth, and our team studies cellular processes or pathways that participate in ...
2023-08-02
New interference radar functions employed by a team of researchers from Chapman University and other institutions improve the distance resolution between objects using radar waves. The results may have important ramifications in military, construction, archaeology, mineralogy and many other domains of radar applications.
This first proof-of-principle experiment opens a new area of research with many possible applications that can be disruptive to the multi-billion dollar radar industry. There are many new avenues to pursue both in theory and experiment.
The ...
2023-08-02
MINNEAPOLIS – Black people and people living in less affluent neighborhoods—areas with higher poverty levels and fewer educational and employment opportunities— may be less likely to be seen at a memory care clinic compared to white people and people living in neighborhoods with fewer disadvantages, according to new research published in the August 2, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
“Our results are concerning, especially ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] New study: Political animosity is global