Social relationships more important than hard evidence in partisan politics

Three factors drive the formation of social and political groups according to the research: social pressure to have stronger opinions, the relationship of an individual’s opinions to those of their social neighbors, and the benefits of having social connections.

A key idea studied in the paper is that people choose their opinions and their connections to avoid differences of opinion with their social neighbors. By joining like-minded groups, individuals also prevent the psychological stress, or “cognitive dissonance,” of considering opinions that do not match their own.

“Human social tendencies are what form the foundation of that political behavior,” said Tucker Evans, a senior at Dartmouth who led the study. “Ultimately, strong relationships can have more value than hard evidence, even for things that some would take as proven fact.”

To conduct the study, the team developed a mathematical model that considers how individuals receive information as well as the social pressures they feel to conform to particular political views. The model helped the researchers understand how divisions form and how they intensify into greater partisanship and increased polarization.

Source: Social relationships more important than hard evidence in partisan politics