The Psychology of Political Polarization

The hyper-partisan nature of contemporary American politics is a major roadblock to effective compromise between Democrats and Republicans and an important contributor to rampant distrust of government in the U.S.  I identify three factors that contribute to our polarized political environment by describing how 1) genuine differences in the moral sensibilities of liberals and conservatives have become infused into political culture, which leads to 2) biased interpretations of political events and information, that are 3) reinforced by a politically-segmented and sensationalist media environment. Each of these processes (moralization, factualization and socialization) are fairly typical outcomes of intergroup conflict, but have been exacerbated by technological advances and are open to exploitation by political actors interested in promoting partisan animosities for political gain. The shortest part of my talk will focus on the hardest part of the problem: what we all can do to promote more civil and more rational political discourse.