These are the most relevant articles I have found so far on the topic. They are grouped by how insightful I found them, though within each group are not sorted in any particular order.
- Most Relevant
- Interesting, and
- “Also Reads,” not as pertinent to my specific focus as were the others.
| Title | Comments | URL |
|---|---|---|
| MOST RELEVANT | _____________________________________________ | |
| You Can’t Separate Money From Culture | Argues that culture and economics are inseparable in explaining the Trump phenomenon. I like the article because it demonstates non-prejudcially looking beyond surface appearances to understand underlying motivations. | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/06/opinion/trump-supporters-economy-racism.html?module=inline |
| Inequality Makes People Hate | Found this perspective interesting because it doesn't reject the prevailing judgment of Trump voters, but does seek to understand underneath what is driving that behavior. Avoids shallow conclusions. Argues that increasing income income inequality is a key cause of increasing polarization and division, particularly for middle class whites. "Frustration breeds bigotry." Of course, another interpretation of this piece is that the author sought to fit Trump voter behavior into the author's prevailing worldview that income inequality is the most important underlyng root problem. | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/opinion/trump-voters-inequality-racism.html |
| Comment: The Exhausted Majority | Smerconish synthesizes four recent studies and comes to similar conclusions as have I, though I think he underweights the additional influence of intolerant human nature, even in the middle. | https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2018/11/03/comment-its-not-america---its-congress.cnn |
| Congress, egged on by the polar extremes, is out of step with the rest of us | Smerconish synthesizes four recent studies and comes to similar conclusions as have I, though I think he underweights the additional influence of intolerant human nature, even in the middle. | http://www2.philly.com/philly/columnists/michael_smerconish/america-political-division-left-right-20181031.html |
| Are We On The Verge Of Civil War? Some Words Of Reassurance | Stanford Prof Fiorina reassures us that while yes, we are working through controversies and yes, our parties appear polarized, the bulk of the electorate is actually not that polarized, and we have worked through these types of issues before. Cites a lot of useful stats to support this view. | https://www.hoover.org/research/are-we-verge-civil-war-some-words-reassurance |
| The Parties in Our Heads: Misperceptions about Party Composition and Their Consequences | Documents that people generally have wholly inaccurate perceptions of the make-up of both their own and the opposing party, and this affects their warmth toward those party members and expectations of policies that party will support. | https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/697253 |
| When Twitter users hear out the other side, they become more polarized | Reviews study that suggest mere exposure to alternate viewpoints, alone, can actually harden ideologies (Study using Twitter) | https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/18/17989856/twitter-polarization-echo-chambers-social-media |
| The Trump Legions | Reviews recent studies helping to explain why portions in the middle are willing to vote for Trump. Found it interesting because it illustrates the need to non-superficially understand those whose support one needs to recruit, in this case the American Center. | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/opinion/the-trump-legions.html |
| Poll: Nearly 4 In 5 Voters Concerned Incivility Will Lead To Violence | NPR Poll finds Americans overwhelming worry incivility heading toward violence, but each side mostly blames the other for this. Interesting to me because it illustrates -- at least in this case among the media -- the preference for discussing blame than for what can be done to fix it. | https://www.npr.org/2018/11/01/662730647/poll-nearly-4-in-5-voters-concerned-incivility-will-lead-to-violence |
| New political typology data show islands of agreement amid sea of polarization (1pp) | Interesting in that it illustrates that groups which superficially may seem completely opposed to one another, indeed may have certain areas of shared opinion/interest. It supports the case against negatively generalizing about a seemingly opposing group. | http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/26/new-political-typology-data-show-islands-of-agreement-amid-sea-of-polarization/ |
| In Praise of Intolerance | Enlightening because it explains a common rationale people use to justify intolerance. My short critique: the author is correct that exception cases exist where intolerance is appropriate. A vast trove of laws exists to demonstrate that. But he uses such deviant cases to disprove the main premise, which is that one needs to be tolerant to (a) learn from and (b) effectively persuade others. In a sense the author's piece disproves his own point. Anyone disagreeing with him would not read it if they were intolerant, so his time writing it would be wasted. One cannot expect others to tolerate one's own opinion if one is intolerant of theirs. | http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/03/tolerance_isn_t_the_goal_truth_is.html |
| The Intolerance of Tolerance | Enlightening because it elaborates one conservative perspective on tolerance, as an interesting juxtaposition with the progressive perspective laid out in the Slate piece. As in the Slate piece this guy makes some valid observations, but he also ends up defining tolerance as basically, "tolerant of what I agree with," which is kind of what the Slate guy concluded, though the two of them agree with different things. | https://www.str.org/articles/the-intolerance-of-tolerance |
| Democrats Are Wrong About Republicans. Republicans Are Wrong About Democrats. | Addresses the study by Douglas Ahler and Gaurav Sood that illustrates the misperceptions each party has about the members of the other. | https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/democrats-are-wrong-about-republicans-republicans-are-wrong-about-democrats/ |
| Political Polarization in the American Public | Actual research data from 2014 that establishes the degree and characteristics of political polarization and antipathy. | http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/ |
| Political Polarization, 1994-2017 | Truly an excellent visualization of increasing polarization in America since 1994. | http://www.people-press.org/interactives/political-polarization-1994-2017/ |
| What Motivates Voters More Than Loyalty? Loathing | Really spot-on commentary on how polarized parties devolve into acrimony. | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/opinion/negative-partisanship-democrats-republicans.html |
| Opinion : The Destructive Dynamics of Political Tribalism | Chua of "Political Tribes" posits that "Coastal Elites" represent a market-dominating minority that historically has led to dramatic disintegration of democracies. | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/opinion/destructive-political-tribalism.html |
| Paper : Bringing Class Back In: Cultural Bubbles and American Political Polarization | Proposes a new definition of class to better understand political behavior. Very insightful on how to understand rationales for voting Trump. | https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/uploads/files/events/20170302-%E2%80%93-CLASS-BUBBLES-McNamara-Harvard-March-2017.pdf |
| Tolerance, Political | Does a great job of illustrating the problem. | https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/tolerance-political |
| What we do know and don’t know about our polarized politics. | Great survey of causes by way of introducing WaPo's series on polarization. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/08/what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-our-polarized-politics |
| Our politics may be polarized. But that’s nothing new. | Very interesting case that congressional polarization is by far the norm and that bipartisanship in the immediate post-war period, through 1990ish, was the outlier. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/16/our-politics-may-be-polarized-but-thats-nothing-new |
| Talking Political Tolerance -- How bridging the political divide requires mutual respect and the ability to listen. | Heavily resonated with me as an account of a steps taken in a local community to address intolerant dialogue. | http://www.diablomag.com/June-2017/Talking-Political-Tolerance/ |
| The State of Free Speech and Tolerance in America Attitudes about Free Speech, Campus Speech, Religious Liberty, and Tolerance of Political Expression | VERY interesting survey on multiple questions around free speech. Provides empirical evidence for many anectodal perceptions, and digs to some depth around _why_ people with different perspectives feel the way they do about free speech. | https://www.cato.org/survey-reports/state-free-speech-tolerance-america |
| Essay : Americans have not become more politically polarized | Very interesting observation arguing that the problem is not greater polarization of viewpoint, but rather sorting into greater consistency within each party. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/06/23/americans-have-not-become-more-politically-polarized |
| Study: Time Period, Generational, and Age Differences in Tolerance for Controversial Beliefs and Lifestyles in the United States, 1972–2012 | Super interesting study. There are a bunch of counter-intuitive concepts in here, including ones that would explain, for instance, why progressives harbor more angst toward conservatives than vice-versa. | https://bit.ly/3986W8E |
| Essay: A Confession of Liberal Intolerance | Argues that progressives are failing to adhere to important liberal principals of tolerance and diveristy of thought. | https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/a-confession-of-liberal-intolerance.html |
| [Blog Post] What I Heard From Trump Supporters | President of Y-Combinator traveled middle-America meeting Trump supporters and recording what he learned. | http://blog.samaltman.com/what-i-heard-from-trump-supporters |
| [Opinion] Where the Right Went Wrong | Resigned conservative radio host despairs changes in the conservative movement that enabled Trump to win nomination. In my view, I agree that conservative radio led the party toward further extremism and intolerance of the Left & middle, thereby enabling a Trump candidacy, and I feel people like Sykes should have known better, earlier. So here we are; it was a foreseeable consequence of a self-serving, short-sighted, irresponsible, one-sided dialogue going way back to Limbaugh, O'Reilly and now Hannity. | https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/opinion/sunday/charlie-sykes-on-where-the-right-went-wrong.html?_r=0 |
| Issuepedia on Tolerance | Definition of the goal | https://issuepedia.org/Tolerance |
| Issuepedia on Open-Mindedness | Definition of the goal | https://issuepedia.org/Open-mindedness |
| Wikipedia Search: Group polarization | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_polarization | |
| Wikipedia Search: Reinforcement Theory | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement_theory | |
| Wikipedia Search: Selective exposure theory | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_exposure_theory | |
| Wikipedia Search: In-group favoritism | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_favoritism | |
| Wikipedia Search: Self-categorization theory | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-categorization_theory | |
| Wikipedia Search: Out-group homogeneity | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-group_homogeneity | |
| Wikipedia Search: Opinion Leadership | A tactic that can be used to more efficiently influence public opinion. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_leadership |
| Wikipedia Search: Robbers Cave Study | Humans have an intrinsic propensity to oppose out-groups. A superordinate goal can cause unifying behavior between the groups. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realistic_conflict_theory#Robbers_cave_study |
| Wikipedia Search: Amity-Enmity Complex | While somewhat obvious, this does provide scientific cover for the foundation concept that humans have an instinct to both group and to oppose. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amity-enmity_complex |
| Wikipedia Search: Realistic Conflict Theory | Provides a framework for understanding the influences driving out-group opposition/stereotyping. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realistic_conflict_theory |
| Wikipedia Search: Echo chamber | Summarizes some specific attempts being made to combat echo chambers | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_chamber_(media) |
| Political Moderates Are Lying | Exposes the dangers of the moderate majority silently acquiescing to thought leadership from the partisan fringes. | https://quillette.com/2018/07/02/political-moderates-are-lying/ |
| INTERESTING | _____________________________________________ | |
| Are we on the verge of civil war? | Commentary on worsening division and a perspective on its causes, with a closing all to unity. Interesting because it gives visibility into the conservative worldview in an unemotional, well-articulated way. | https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/sep/19/are-we-on-the-verge-of-civil-war/ |
| The Origins of Our Second Civil War | Hoover Institution prof's perspective from the Right on causes underlying deepening divisiveness in America, and where it might lead. Calmly, logically reasoned & presented, so easy to follow/consider. | https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/origins-of-second-civil-war-globalism-tech-boom-immigration-campus-radicalism/ |
| In midst of political violence, America greatly needs unity | Observes divisiveness trending toward violence and calls for renewed cooperation on pressing national issues. | https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/412422-in-midst-of-political-violence-america-greatly-needs-unity |
| DEMOCRAT/REPUBLICAN DIVIDE IS WORST IT’S EVER BEEN | Research data documents worsening polarization in House and Senate since 1973, regardless of party in control. | https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2018/democrat-republican-divide-is-worst-its-ever-been/ |
| People don’t vote for what they want. They vote for who they are. | Argues that party identification/tribalism is more important currently than policy preferences. | https://wapo.st/2OUi6XT |
| (Accumulate links from this article) Media Bubbles Aren’t The Biggest Reason We’re Partisans | https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/media-bubbles-arent-the-biggest-reason-were-partisans/ | |
| (Accumulate links from this article) Why Partisans Look At The Same Evidence On Ukraine And See Wildly Different Things | https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-partisans-look-at-the-same-evidence-on-ukraine-and-see-wildly-different-things/ | |
| Yes, Be Very Worried Over Growing Polarization | Argues that the current state of polarization is closer to pre Civil War than it is to disagreements in 30s and 60s. | https://www.hoover.org/research/yes-be-very-worried-over-growing-polarization |
| Another 'Civil War'? Pessimism About Political Violence Deepens In A Divided Nation | NPR explores concerns that discord is leading to civil strife. | https://www.npr.org/2018/10/31/662216598/another-civil-war-pessimism-about-political-violence-deepens-in-a-divided-nation |
| It’s time to bust the myth: Most Trump voters were not working class. | I have a major issue with how statistics are presented in this article. First, the author defines "blue-collar and working-class" voters as below median income, which I think is inaccurate. Many, (nearly all?) blue- and working-class voters are clustered around median national income, with a big chunk (if not the majority) above median. So to say that only 35% of Trump supporters were below-median income voters and therefore his support was not mostly working-class does not follow. If you add the portion of "blue collar/working class" that is above median income, that 35% jumps dramatically, very likely to a majority. Second, the question isn't really what percent of Trump voters were working class, but what percent of working class were Trump voters, as an insight into where the concerns of the biggest chunk of American voters lie. The author does not address that question, which is mathematically a different statistic from the one he addresses. I also think his final sentence ilustrates the manner with which many analysts are missing the point of the last election. HRC lost the electoral college by a combined 78,000 votes across three states. Even jsut those 35% that these authors address, that's tens of millions of voters. How can you make the argument that they are not a reason -- mathematically a major reason, one-third of the reason -- that she lost? | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/05/its-time-to-bust-the-myth-most-trump-voters-were-not-working-class |
| In polarized era, fewer Americans hold a mix of conservative and liberal views (1pp) | Very succinctly documents & illustrates the polarization & ideological sorting evidenced through 2017 survey. | http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/23/in-polarized-era-fewer-americans-hold-a-mix-of-conservative-and-liberal-views/ |
| Opinion: A Liberal Defense of Tribalism | Takes issue with the use of "tribal" to describe the state of politics today and dives deeply into what "tribes" really represent. Ultimately uses actual tribal behavior to offer suggestison for how to improve collaboration. In general I think he's spun off on a tangent. | http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/16/a-liberal-defense-of-tribalism-american-politics/ |
| When Tolerance Is Intolerant | Similar to another reference by Koukl, takes issue with what he sees as a current view of tolerism and proposes an alternative where by one tolerates people but not ideas. I disagree with his definition of the current view on tolerance, though admittedly there are examples where he is right. And I also challenge his prefered prescription for tolerance, in that it limits exposure to challenging perspectives. In my reading of his view, there is one true answer on things and it's the one he comes up with. I suggest there may be one true answer but that he may not know it without considering all the proposed answers. | https://www.str.org/articles/when-tolerance-is-intolerant |
| Article We need new ideas to reduce partisan polarization | Addresses and argues against 2 current prescriptions for reducing polarization, suggests we need yet new ideas. | https://www.vox.com/polyarchy/2017/6/27/15880328/how-to-reduce-partisan-polarization |
| The Rise of the Biden Republicans | Interesting discussion of the perspectives and role of white swing voters in the Midwest and how the Dems recaptured the White House in 2020 by paying attention and appealing to them. | https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/04/reagan-democrats-biden-republicans-politics-stan-greenberg-473330 |
| Wikipedia Search: Elite Theory | Describes the theory of Elite control of the state. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_theory |
| Wikipedia Search: Pluralism (political theory) | Describes various Pluralistic theories of Elite control of the state. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralism_(political_theory) |
| How We Became Bitter Political Enemies | Reviews various studies that document growing animosity, judgementality and self-sorting among ideological viewpoints. | https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/upshot/how-we-became-bitter-political-enemies.html |
| The dangers of partisan animosity | Discusses the dangers of partisan animosity in undermining the proper functioning of the party system. | https://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-faction/2017/4/3/15153780/partisan-animosity-danger |
| Political Polarization | Collection of research & analysis on political polarization | http://www.pewresearch.org/packages/political-polarization/ |
| Political Typology Quiz | Survey helps one characterize where one falls on political spectrum, and what groups share one's general perspectives. | http://www.people-press.org/quiz/political-typology/ |
| The polarized Congress of today has its roots in the 1970s (1pp) | Visually illustrates dramatic progressive polarization in Congress since 73 and quanitifies the resulting reduction in productivity. | http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/12/polarized-politics-in-congress-began-in-the-1970s-and-has-been-getting-worse-ever-since/ |
| The Partisan Divide on Political Values Grows Even Wider (10pp) (Resume wiht sec 5, pg 4) | Review results of 2017 Pew political opinions survey, documenting more polarized views and greater partisanship then ever recorded. | http://www.people-press.org/2017/10/05/the-partisan-divide-on-political-values-grows-even-wider/ |
| Report: Partisan Bad Blood Highest In Decades | Covers 2016 Pew Report on growing partisanship | https://www.npr.org/2016/06/22/482970864/report-partisan-bad-blood-highest-in-decades |
| When asked to explain partisanship, Americans point to fear | Covers 2016 Pew Report on growing partisanship | https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/0629/When-asked-to-explain-partisanship-Americans-point-to-fear |
| Pew : Key takeaways on Americans’ growing partisan divide over political values | Summarizes wide and growing partisan gaps on eight or so key policy issues. | http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/05/takeaways-on-americans-growing-partisan-divide-over-political-values/ |
| Someone wrote ‘Trump 2016’ on Emory’s campus in chalk. Some students said they no longer feel safe. | Covers incident where pro-Trump campaign grafitti sparked anti-intimidation reaction | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/03/24/someone-wrote-trump-2016-on-emorys-campus-in-chalk-some-students-said-they-no-longer-feel-safe |
| Why Democrats and Republicans are so wrong about each other | Summary of recent Pew and other research on what causes misperceptions of out groups. | https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/0407/Why-Democrats-and-Republicans-are-so-wrong-about-each-other |
| Why do people belong to a party? Negative views of the opposing party are a major factor | Summarizes reasons for party affiliations from Pew research | http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/29/why-do-people-belong-to-a-party-negative-views-of-the-opposing-party-are-a-major-factor/ |
| Republicans and Democrats agree: They can’t agree on basic facts | Pew Research finds that both parties agree that they disagee over even basic facts | http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/23/republicans-and-democrats-agree-they-cant-agree-on-basic-facts/ |
| People wildly overestimate the number of gay Democrats and rich Republicans | Reviews the Dougahler study on misperceptions about others' parties. | https://www.vox.com/2016/4/7/11380224/ahler-sood-misperception |
| Article: How social science can help us understand moral tribalism in politics | Highlights studies that show both tribalism and cooperation are innate to humans and can be explained through science. | https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2018/mar/27/how-social-science-can-help-us-understand-moral-tribalism-in-politics |
| Research paper: The Political Consequences of Intolerance: Cultural Conformity and Political Freedom | Postulates that cultural, informal, non-government-imposed intolerance exists and encourages conformity, so explores whether intolerance is correlated with personal perception of freedom. | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1964224?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents |
| Essay : Are We Becoming a Nation of Intolerance? | Observes the problem. | https://www.huffingtonpost.com/russell-bishop/are-we-becoming-a-nation_b_533431.html |
| What's the Answer to Political Polarization in the U.S.? | Discusses solutions exclusively from the perspective of how to reform the make-up of nationally elected officials. Ie: does not touch at all upon the reasons underlying polarization among the electorate, only upon polarization caused by the outcome of voting (not why they cotred that way). | https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/whats-the-answer-to-political-polarization/470163/ |
| Article series : WaPo has whole series on polarization. See links on bottom of page, here: | Split into sub-articles | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/24/the-two-key-factors-behind-our-polarized-politics |
| This is the real reason why American politics is so polarized, according to an expert | Not terribly insightful except for a really useful graphic showing polarizatoin over time. | http://www.businessinsider.com/sociology-explains-polarization-politics-2017-3 |
| Toleration Is Postmodern-Speak For Bigotry | Interesting in its observation that the push for tolerance can cause us to be intolerant (of what we see as intolerance) | http://thefederalist.com/2015/07/29/toleration-is-postmodern-speak-for-bigotry/ |
| Why Tolerance Is Different Than Acceptance | Thoughts on the meaning of toleration in counter to the earlier essay on the Federalist. | http://thefederalist.com/2015/08/18/why-tolerance-is-different-than-acceptance/ |
| Trends in the Polarization of U.S. Politics | Reviews the thesis that political polarization is simply the result of same-minded peoples sorting themselves more consistently into the two parties. | https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/07/25/trends-in-the-polarization-of-u-s-politics/ |
| Amidst Extreme Political Polarization, the Average American Goes Unrepresented | Review recent Pew Research to assess current state of polarization | https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/06/19/amidst-extreme-political-polarization-the-average-american-goes-unrepresented/ |
| Graphic: Dem/GOP polarization over time. | https://thumbs.gfycat.com/RequiredFrankBorderterrier-mobile.mp4 | |
| How ideological activists constructed our polarized politics. | Argues that polarization always existed on an issue-by-issue basis and that what we are now seeing is simply tighter sorting of these viewpoints into the two parties. Used the example that Medicare was not a party-line vote, but it was a worldview-line vote (Liberal vs Conservative, but who were in both parties). | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/24/the-two-key-factors-behind-our-polarized-politics |
| The real extremists are American voters, not politicians. | Argues that the traditional method of gauging extremism vs moderation misprepresents the underlying truth and that in fact the public is, on average, more extreme than legislators, and that in order to uncover this we have to look at thing on an issue by issue basis, rather than party or ideology basis. Notably this finding undermines the reliability of assuming ideological consistency. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/22/the-real-extremists-are-american-voters-not-politicians |
| Polarization we can live with. Partisan warfare is the problem. | Argues that it is the means, not the ideologies, that cause the dysfunction. Specifically, willingness to engage in warfare as opposed to productive collaboration. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/10/polarization-we-can-live-with-partisan-warfare-is-the-problem |
| How race and religion have polarized American voters. | Argues that the cuases of _party_ polarization are deep divides in race/ethnicity and religion. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/20/how-race-and-religion-have-polarized-american-voters |
| 17: Political Polarization Is A Psychology Problem | Identifies the psychological tendencies influencing polarization and suggests some exercises to mitigate | https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/political-polarization-is-a-psychology-problem_us_5a01dd9ee4b07eb5118255e5 |
| Opinion : A Fake America: Cultural Fragmentation and Polarization | Oberves the problem and calls out a number of potential influences, many of which I concur with. | http://harvardpolitics.com/online/fake-america-cultural-fragmentation-polarization/ |
| Essay : Polarization Is Dividing American Society, Not Just Politics | Reviews Pew Polarization Study | https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/upshot/polarization-is-dividing-american-society-not-just-politics.html |
| Studies Show That People Who Have High “Integrative Complexity” Are More Likely To Be Successful | Very interesting article, but he's selling a program so the argument is tainted. | https://medium.com/the-mission/studies-show-that-people-who-have-high-integrative-complexity-are-more-likely-to-be-successful-443480e8930c |
| Article: Tolerance in America: Getting Nicer | Tolerance of certain behaviors has improved markedly in the last 50 years. | https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/03/tolerance-america |
| Essay : The Triumph of Polarized Partisanship in 2016: Donald Trump's Improbable Victory | [Purchased PDF] Analyzes and seeks to explain why (A) Trump faced long odds but (B) still won. | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/polq.12572 |
| Essay: How better educated whites are driving political polarization | Argues that nearly all of the polarization since 1990 has been among middle income and above, well-educated whites. However, data is confined to one topic (abortion) and polarization is defined entirely as, essentially, party sorting. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/23/how-better-educated-whites-are-driving-political-polarization |
| Political Intolerance Is Rising | Highlights Pew research that suggests ideological intolerance is worse on the Left. | https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/07/21/political-intolerance-rising/ |
| Essay: Political Polarization—Evolving Both Right and Left | Elucidates an "Integral Philosophy" perspective on America's political polarization, how to think about it and what to do about it. (Integral Philosophy is a wholly separate topic one would need to first explore). | https://www.culturalevolution.org/political-campaigns/political-polarization/ |
| Article: The Trump Divide Grows Wider | Interesting because super-current. Survey finds" widest partisan gap ever found in the Journal/NBC News survey." | https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-trump-divide-grows-wider-1532356550 |
| Opinion : We are being destroyed by tribalism. Let’s get rid of it | In reviewing Chua's book Political Tribe's, commentary on how tribalism diverts attention away from debating ideas. | https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/03/we-are-being-destroyed-by-tribalism-lets-get-rid-of-it/ |
| Americans aren’t polarized, just better sorted. | Comments on how the broad public has not become more polarized in its views, but has sorted itself more consistently into parties based upon views. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/21/americans-arent-polarized-just-better-sorted |
| Essay: How the Internet Trains our Brains to Polarize and Despise | Argues that the Internet trains the brain to gravitate toward similarity of thought and dismiss non-similarity. | https://www.allsides.com/blog/internet-trains-brains-polarize-despise |
| How to Escape Your Political Bubble for a Clearer View | Describes efforts to mitigate filter bubbles in social media. | https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/arts/the-battle-over-your-political-bubble.html |
| Article : On Chua: After being the 'Tiger Mom', Amy Chua turns to political tribalism | One luminary's motivations for getting involved in the tolerance struggle. | https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2018/mar/01/amy-chua-tiger-mom-writer-book-political-tribes |
| Wikipedia on Toleration | Focuses mostly on religious toleration thoroughout history, and at that, mostly within Christianity. Barely touches upon other forms of toleration. But does give some background on the evolution of the foundation of thought that undermine the concept of tolerance to differences in general. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toleration |
| Wikipedia: Polarization (politics) | Good survey of the issue, including measures of whether it is worsening and whether indeed politics has anything to do with it. But I don't think it accurately gets at the core of what I am after -- why people impulsively react negatively to groups that think differently. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization_(politics) |
| Wikipedia Search: Paradox of tolerance | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance | |
| Wikipedia Search: Polarization (economics) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization_(economics) | |
| Wikipedia Search: Cognitive dissonance | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance | |
| Wikipedia Search: Cognitive Inertia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_inertia | |
| Wikipedia Search: Confirmation bias | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias | |
| Wikipedia Search: Identity politics | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_politics | |
| Wikipedia Search: Deindividuation | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deindividuation | |
| Wikipedia Search: Social identity model of deindividuation effects | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_identity_model_of_deindividuation_effects | |
| Wikipedia Search: Social identity theory | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_identity_theory | |
| Wikipedia Search: Ethnocentrism | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism | |
| Wikipedia Search: civil discourse | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_discourse | |
| Wikipedia Search: Open-mindedness | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-mindedness | |
| Wikipedia Search: Tribalism | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribalism | |
| Wikipedia Search: Parochialism | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parochialism | |
| Wikipedia Search: Filter Bubble | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble | |
| Wikipedia Search: False consensus effect | The belief that one's perspective is shared by a larger group than it actually is. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_consensus_effect |
| Wikipedia Search: Communal reinforcement | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communal_reinforcement | |
| The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Toleration | Survey of the history of philosophical thought around tolerance, with criticism of the various perspectives. | http://www.iep.utm.edu/tolerati/ |
| MSNBC Panel on declining civil discourse | https://www.msnbc.com/weekends-with-alex-witt/watch/lack-of-civil-discourse-creating-schism-in-our-politics-and-culture-1103899715578 | |
| Video: Yale Law professor explains the rise of political tribalism | https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/02/22/yale-law-professor-explains-the-rise-of-political-tribalism.html | |
| VIDEO: The End of Identity Liberalism | Interesting NYT opinion piece on the divisive perils of Identity Politics, by Mark Lilla of Columbia U. Argues for Dem party to communicate more inclusively. | https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-identity-liberalism.html |
| There are absolutely two Americas. Sometimes in the same state. | Interesting article dissecting the underlying trends driving why people vote red or blue in 2 contrasting districts in Virginia. Exposes insights beyond the simplistic "Because they're bad people." | https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/20/politics/2018-midterms-brownstein-two-americas-in-virginia/index.html |
| Dozens at Facebook Unite to Challenge Its ‘Intolerant’ Liberal Culture | Subgroup of FB employees rally for ideological diversity. | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/technology/inside-facebook-employees-political-bias.html |
| Manifesto: “We Have a Problem with Political Diversity” | FB employee statement criticising ideological homogeneity. | https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/201-facebook-political-diversity/a8dfe9ae492061f54455/optimized/full.pdf#page=1 |
| "ALSO READS" | _____________________________________________ | |
| What does tolerance mean today? | Just an announcement of an event to discuss tolerance | http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6829 |
| Federalist No. 10’s Legacy: The Rise of Partisan Antipathy and How It Is Controlled | Addresses how Madison's Fed#10 paper anticipated that a Republic would moderate the self-interests of the extremes. | https://polsci307.blog/2017/09/09/federalist-no-10s-legacy-the-rise-of-partisan-antipathy-and-how-it-is-controlled/ |
| Social Power Theories: Pluralist, Power-Elite & Marxist Models | Reviews three leading models of power within society | https://study.com/academy/lesson/social-power-theories-pluralist-power-elite-marxist-models.html |
| Discussion: Is modern-day tribalism the fundamental problem in our societies? | Not terribly informative | https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_modern-day_tribalism_the_fundamental_problem_in_our_societies |
| Article [14]: The two key factors behind our polarized politics | Argues that polarization is simply a function of (a) standard policy disagreements between Dems & GOP and (b) party realignemnt since 60s. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/24/the-two-key-factors-behind-our-polarized-politics |
| Accuracy motivation and defense motivation | A little too in the weeds to be helpful. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_exposure_theory#cite_note-FischerKastenmuller2011-10 |
| Let’s Break Our Current Political Intolerance | Doesn't add much insightful | https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lets-break-our-current-political-intolerance_us_594ae69de4b07cdb1933bf84 |
| World must tackle intolerance and exclusion, says Social Progress Index | Doesn't really directly address the issue. | https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jun/29/world-must-tackle-intolerance-and-exclusion-says-social-progress-index |
| Our politics is polarized on more issues than ever before. | Argues that polarization has been driven simply by deepening disagreement over fundamental issues. Personally don't think this is a very insightful analysis, and still begs the question, "why?" | https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/24/the-two-key-factors-behind-our-polarized-politics |
| Talk Slides (2009): Culture wars, voting, and polarization: divisions and unities in modern American politics | http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/presentations/inequality.pdf | |
| Issuepedia on Intolerance | Pretty poorly done, and in my mind fairly overtly partisan treatment of the definition. As pretty clear onfirmation of this, if you look at Issuepedia on Aerican Cultural Polarization it uses the phrase "the conservative view _appears_ to be" while , for the liberal view, it uses the phrase "the liberal view _is_." | https://issuepedia.org/Social_intolerance |
| Issuepedia on American Cultural Polarization | Does a ridiculously horrible and one-sided job of summarizing the two sides perspectives. | https://issuepedia.org/American_cultural_polarization |
| Wikepedia: Social Polarization | Not terribly informative | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_polarization |
| Wikipedia Search: tolerance | ||
| Wikipedia Search: Balkanization | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanization | |
| Wikipedia Search: Michel de Montaigne | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne | |
| Wikipedia Search: intolerance | ||
| Wikipedia Search: polarization | ||
| Wikipedia Search: Racial polarization | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_polarization | |
| Wikipedia Search: Subjective validation | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_validation | |
| Wikipedia Search: Cultural dissonance | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_dissonance | |
| Wikipedia Search: Groupthink | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink | |
| Wikipedia Search: Herd behavior | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_behavior | |
| Wikipedia Search: Depersonalization | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depersonalization | |
| Wikipedia Search: apophenia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia | |
| Wikipedia Search: partisan (political) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partisan_(political) | |
| Research Article : Is Tribalism a Natural Malfunction? What computers teach us about getting along. | http://nautil.us/issue/52/the-hive/is-tribalism-a-natural-malfunction | |
| Contentious Memo Strikes Nerve Inside Google and Out | I don't think this plays helpfully into what I'm working on. To a degree it potentially represents suppression of an alternate viewpoint. But in this case the viewpoint happens to be directly critical of another group (women) and I think we can address opennes to less personally-critical topics before we tackle these stickier examples. | https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/technology/google-engineer-fired-gender-memo.html |
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