Reality check: How divided is America, really?

We hear all the time about how polarized we’ve become as a nation. When Pew Research asked Americans what one word they would use to describe politics today, the most popular response was “Divisive.”

And it is true that conservatives and liberals disagree on the same issues we have for years, from gun control and gay marriage, to government regulation and taxing the rich.

But there are also a whole lot of things that we actually agree on.

For starters, we tend to worry about the same kinds of things: artificial intelligence (88%) … getting scammed (58%) … about our kids spending too much time on their phones (76%).

But no matter the political party, we all tend to love the National Park Service (76%), NASA (67%), and the U.S. Postal Service (72%).

Then, there are some things that pretty much all of us dislike: people having affairs (89%) … the idea of cloning people (84%) … and Kim Jong Un (91%).

But almost all of us watch fireworks on the Fourth of July (80%) … leave tips for our servers at restaurants, or say we do (92%) … keep our phones nearby every waking hour (83%) …  and decorate our homes for the holidays (75%).

We believe in the freedoms of speech (90%), privacy (88%), and religion (84%). And we fiercely believe that everyone deserves equal treatment under the law (91%).

So, yeah, the angry pundits on TV and social media certainly give us the impression that we are a wildly divided country – so that’s what we wind up believing.

But you know what? We might just be a little bit wrong about that. One study after another after another after another shows that we tend to have exaggerated ideas about what the other guys believe. And they have an exaggerated idea about us.

For example, this 2018 study found that Republicans believe that 37% of Democrats are union members. The actual number is 11%. Meanwhile, Democrats believe that 33% of Republicans earn more than $250,000 a year. The real number? 2%.

So, yeah, we’re actually not as far apart as we think we are.

And that’s the reality. I checked!

       
Story produced by David Rothman. Editor: Chad Cardin. 
     

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David Pogue

David Pogue is a six-time Emmy winner for his stories on “CBS Sunday Morning,” where he’s been a correspondent since 2002. Pogue hosts the CBS News podcast “Unsung Science.” He’s also a New York Times bestselling author, a five-time TED speaker, and host of 20 NOVA science specials on PBS. For 13 years, he wrote a New York Times tech column every week – and for 10 years, a Scientific American column every month.