TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – A study by Florida State University’s Institute for Governance and Civics shows a deepening political divide in our country, which is increasingly impacting our social circles.
“Disagreement Under Strain: Trends in the American Experience of Political Conflict” was released earlier this month.
“These findings show that Americans are struggling to navigate political disagreement and conversation in their everyday life,” study author and IGC researcher Zach Goldberg said.
The IGC drew data from dozens of national surveys and studies over the past decade.
Among the report’s findings:
Talking about politics is more stressful than it’s been in the past and people are more pessimistic that we can bridge those political differences.A vast majority of Americans believe people of the opposite political party do not share their values and goals and beyond that, are more immoral and dishonest.
“I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that the public is split, that there is polarization. That’s not surprising,” FSU IGC Director Ryan Owens said. “What I found surprising and frankly alarming is people’s views toward opposite partisans in terms of morality. The data shows pretty clearly that the public finds opposite partisans less moral and less trustworthy than the average American.”
The study also documented that political disagreements are increasingly impacting our family life and social circles.
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The report found that compared to a decade ago, Americans are now two to three times as likely to report that a major family gathering like Thanksgiving dinner was ‘ruined’ by political arguments.
“Perhaps the clearest indication that political disagreement has taken on deeper social meaning is Americans’ growing discomfort with marriage across political lines,” the report said. It shows that in 2024, about 45% of Democrats and 38% of Republicans reported displeasure with their children marrying someone from the other political party.
28% of Americans say they’ve lost friends because of political disagreements, the study found, and we are increasingly surrounding ourselves with people who share our political views.
“So what we seem to be doing as a country right now is doubling down on existing beliefs, polarized existing beliefs, and that’s a real problem,” Owens said, ”because what we need to do is associate ourselves with others who don’t necessarily agree with us, to challenge our views and just recognize that there is so much more to life than politics.”
“Our civic health is in crisis, but civic education is the cure and that is one of the most important things we can take away from this data,” Owens said. “As you can see from the results here, the data are pretty damning. Sort of alarming. We have our work cut out for us.”
To view the full study, click here. To learn more about FSU’s Institute for Governance and Civics, click here.
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