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The Perception Gap

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Amiga, Jun 24, 2019.

  1. Amiga

    Amiga I get vaunted sacred revelations from social media
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    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/a...-democrats-dont-understand-each-other/592324/

    Republicans Don't Understand Democrats—And Democrats Don't Understand Republicans
    A new study shows Americans have little understanding of their political adversaries—and education doesn’t help.


    Americans often lament the rise of “extreme partisanship,” but this is a poor description of political reality: Far from increasing, Americans’ attachment to their political parties has considerably weakened over the past years. Liberals no longer strongly identify with the Democratic Party and conservatives no longer strongly identify with the Republican Party.

    What is corroding American politics is, specifically, negative partisanship: Although most liberals feel conflicted about the Democratic Party, they really hate the Republican Party. And even though most conservatives feel conflicted about the Republican Party, they really hate the Democratic Party.

    America’s political divisions are driven by hatred of an out-group rather than love of the in-group. The question is: Why?

    A new study, called “The Perception Gap,” helps provide an answer. More in Common, an advocacy organization devoted to countering extremism that previously published a viral report on America’s “hidden tribes,” set out to understand how political partisans see each other. Researchers asked Democrats to guess how Republicans would answer a range of political questions—and vice versa. (The survey was conducted among a sample of 2,100 U.S. adults the week immediately following the 2018 midterm elections.) What they found is fascinating: Americans’ mental image of the “other side” is a caricature.

    According to the Democratic caricature, most Republicans stridently oppose immigration, hold deeply prejudiced views about religious minorities, and are blind to the existence of racism or sexism. Asked to guess what share of Republicans believe that immigration can strengthen America so long as it is “properly controlled,” for example, Democrats estimated about half; actually, nearly nine in 10 agreed with this sentiment.

    Democrats also estimated that four in 10 Republicans believe that “many Muslims are good Americans,” and that only half recognize that “racism still exists in America.” In reality, those figures were two-thirds and four in five.

    Unsurprisingly, Republicans are also prone to caricature Democrats. For example, Republicans approximated that only about half of Democrats are “proud to be American” despite the country’s problems. Actually, more than four in five Democrats said they are. Similarly, Republicans guessed that fewer than four in 10 Democrats reject the idea of open borders. Actually, seven in 10 said they do.

    If the reasons for mutual hatred are rooted as much in mutual misunderstanding as in genuine differences of values, that suggests Americans’ divisions should in principle be easy to remedy. It’s all just a matter of education.

    Unfortunately, the “Perception Gap” study suggests that neither the media nor the universities are likely to remedy Americans’ inability to hear one another: It found that the best educated and most politically interested Americans are more likely to vilify their political adversaries than their less educated, less tuned-in peers.

    Americans who rarely or never follow the news are surprisingly good at estimating the views of people with whom they disagree. On average, they misjudge the preferences of political adversaries by less than 10 percent. Those who follow the news most of the time, by contrast, are terrible at understanding their adversaries. On average, they believe that the share of their political adversaries who endorse extreme views is about 30 percent higher than it is in reality.

    Perhaps because institutions of higher learning tend to be dominated by liberals, Republicans who have gone to college are not more likely to caricature their ideological adversaries than those who dropped out of high school. But among Democrats, education seems to make the problem much worse. Democrats who have a high-school degree suffer from a greater perception gap than those who don’t. Democrats who went to college harbor greater misunderstandings than those who didn’t. And those with a postgrad degree have a way more skewed view of Republicans than anybody else.

    It is deeply worrying that Americans now have so little understanding of their political adversaries. It is downright disturbing that the very institutions that ought to help us become better informed may actually be deepening our mutual incomprehension.
     
  2. DFWRocket

    DFWRocket Member

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    great article. The problem is that the extreme right and the extreme left both scream the louder than the majority. This causes the false impressions.
     
  3. B-Bob

    B-Bob "94-year-old self-described dreamer"

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    It's no fun to humanize your perceived adversaries, I guess. Watch this thread fizzle.

    Great article tho.
     
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  4. Amiga

    Amiga I get vaunted sacred revelations from social media
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    And unfortunately, the extreme is seeping into the non-extreme. "He who stays near (black) ink gets stained black." The false impressions is spreading.

    You were right.
     
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  5. Amiga

    Amiga I get vaunted sacred revelations from social media
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    American large perception gap on the size of small groups and large groups..

    From millionaires to Muslims, small subgroups of the population seem much larger to many Americans | YouGov
    3/15/22

    [​IMG]

    When it comes to estimating the size of demographic groups, Americans rarely get it right. In two recent YouGov polls, we asked respondents to guess the percentage (ranging from 0% to 100%) of American adults who are members of 43 different groups, including racial and religious groups, as well as other less frequently studied groups, such as pet owners and those who are left-handed.

    When people’s average perceptions of group sizes are compared to actual population estimates, an intriguing pattern emerges: Americans tend to vastly overestimate the size of minority groups. This holds for sexual minorities, including the proportion of gays and lesbians (estimate: 30%, true: 3%), bisexuals (estimate: 29%, true: 4%), and people who are transgender (estimate: 21%, true: 0.6%).

    It also applies to religious minorities, such as Muslim Americans (estimate: 27%, true: 1%) and Jewish Americans (estimate: 30%, true: 2%). And we find the same sorts of overestimates for racial and ethnic minorities, such as Native Americans (estimate: 27%, true: 1%), Asian Americans (estimate: 29%, true: 6%), and Black Americans (estimate: 41%, true: 12%).

    A parallel pattern emerges when we look at estimates of majority groups: People tend to underestimate rather than overestimate their size relative to their actual share of the adult population. For instance, we find that people underestimate the proportion of American adults who are Christian (estimate: 58%, true: 70%) and the proportion who have at least a high school degree (estimate: 65%, true: 89%).

    The most accurate estimates involved groups whose real proportion fell right around 50%, including the percentage of American adults who are married (estimate: 55%, true: 51%) and have at least one child (estimate: 58%, true: 57%).

    Misperceptions of the size of minority groups have been identified in prior surveys, which observers have often attributed to social causes: fear of out-groups, lack of personal exposure, or portrayals in the media. Yet consistent with prior research, we find that the tendency to misestimate the size of demographic groups is actually one instance of a broader tendency to overestimate small proportions and underestimate large ones, regardless of the topic.

    If exaggerated perceptions of minority groups’ share of the American population are due to fear, we would expect estimates of those groups’ share that are made by the groups’ members to be more accurate than those made by others. We tested this theory on minority groups that were represented by at least 100 respondents within our sample and found that they were no better (and often worse) than non-group members at guessing the relative size of the minority group they belong to.

    Black Americans estimate that, on average, Black people make up 52% of the U.S. adult population; non-Black Americans estimate the proportion is roughly 39%, closer to the real figure of 12%. First-generation immigrants we surveyed estimate that first-generation immigrants account for 40% of U.S. adults, while non-immigrants guess it is around 31%, closer to the actual figure of 14%.

    Although there is some question-by-question variability, the results from our survey show that inaccurate perceptions of group size are not limited to the types of socially charged group divisions typically explored in similar studies: race, religion, sexuality, education, and income. Americans are equally likely to misestimate the size of less widely discussed groups, such as adults who are left-handed. While respondents estimated that 34% of U.S. adults are left-handed, the real estimate lies closer to 10-12%. Similar misperceptions are found regarding the proportion of American adults who own a pet, have read a book in the past year, or reside in various cities or states. This suggests that errors in judgment are not due to the specific context surrounding a certain group.


    ...

    This reasoning process — referred to as uncertainty-based rescaling — leads people to systematically overestimate the size of small values and underestimate the size of large values. It also explains why estimates of populations closer to 0% (e.g., LGBT people, Muslims, and Native Americans) and populations closer to 100% (e.g., adults with a high school degree or who own a car) are less accurate than estimates of populations that are closer to 50%, such as the percentage of American adults who are married or have a child.

    ...
     
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  6. Sweet Lou 4 2

    Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member
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    Those poll results make no sense - American believe that 60% of the US population lives in NYC & Texas? huh?

    Or that 21 percent of the population is transgender at 27% Muslim? Yeah, there are a lot of dumb Americans but that can't be possible.
     
  7. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Contributing Member
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    Notice this thread is from 2019 and the problem hasn't gotten any better since then.
     
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  8. Space Ghost

    Space Ghost Contributing Member

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    I got called a Putin apologist for disagreeing with a leftist today.
     
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  9. Andre0087

    Andre0087 Member

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    I got called a Biden apologist for disagreeing with a far right asswipe today. :rolleyes:
     
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  10. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    That is a mark of honor... Not because of the Biden association but because you earned the disdain from a true dumbass.
     
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  11. Andre0087

    Andre0087 Member

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    I think this is the first time I’ve read you curse… no hate tell it like it is.
     
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  12. ThatBoyNick

    ThatBoyNick Member

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    41% black
    39% hispanic
    30% gay
    30% jewish
    29% bisexual
    27% native american
    27% muslim
    21% trans


    No wonder people are so upset, Americas down to like negative 30% straight white people

    Is this what they give to athletes in concussion protocol or something?

    I'm 77% sure that poll is crap
     
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  13. Sweet Lou 4 2

    Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member
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    You do realize that Putin is not a leftist?
     
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  14. Space Ghost

    Space Ghost Contributing Member

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    I would legit like to know how a leftist calling me a putin apologist has been misconstrued into me calling Putin a leftist. Please fill in the blanks for me. Im at a complete loss. Its me, not you.
     
  15. subtomic

    subtomic Contributing Member
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    there is no extreme left in this country.
     
  16. Sweet Lou 4 2

    Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member
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    You honestly don't see why what you wrote implied that Putin was a leftist? Otherwise why would you even point it out?
     
  17. dobro1229

    dobro1229 Contributing Member

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    You poor thing. I bet you actually explained your position then so everyone understood what your actual point was then.
     
  18. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    They give 120% of their effort at work 25/7.
     
  19. dobro1229

    dobro1229 Contributing Member

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    I actually disagree somewhat with this writer. I think we know people on the opposite side of our politics all the time and understand who they are well.

    What we don’t understand is the caricature in our heads of what a Libtard or a Trumper is in relation to those people we know.

    I have a defining moment in my life that changed who I am today and a defining hobby that was a big contributing factor. I think even the Trumpiest Trumper that heard my story would get why I’m passionate about the environment due to surfing or how my Hispanic friend called me out for saying something racist when I was 18 and then took my out to some great spots in Houston that night and imparted his story onto me as an immigrant.

    Then on the other hand if you went and had beers with my crazy MAGA uncle you’d probably hear his story about getting passed on for job after job and how in his mind it was because of affirmative action and liberal culture in the workplace. You’d maybe disagree with him, but you’d at least understand why he feels the way he does and loves a racist demagogue like Trump.

    Or my mom who is a huge Pat Robertson fan over the years. I love my mom and think her politics and her fundamentalism are disturbing but I understand how she got where she is politically.

    Maybe someone in NY working on broadway might not understand right wingers but I really don’t think that’s most liberals. Same with Trumpers where I don’t think the majority of them live in bum F Texas where they don’t ever cross paths with anyone without a MAGA flag on their front porch.
     
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  20. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Contributing Member

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    Are we supposed to feel sorry for you or something?
     

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