This coming election cycle is likely to be among the most contentious the United States of America has seen in quite some time. Something common to both Democrats and Republicans is the tendency to stereotype the other side. For those of you who know a few things about human psychology, this should not come as a surprise to you. In-group/out-group biases are well-established in the literature and apply to more than just politics.
In simple terms, we generally perceive groups we consider ourselves members of (in-group) more favorably and have a strong appreciation of the differences between members of our own group. However, for groups we do not consider ourselves members of (out-group) are disfavored and differences between members of that group are disregarded. In other words, we all tend to negatively stereotype anybody who isn't part of our particular club. When it comes to politics, we are especially prone to assuming extremes in others.
If you would like to read up on some research related to this topic please check out this article posted by The Conversation today, which inspired this post:
Something Democrats and Republicans have in common: Exaggerated stereotypes about both parties
For those of you who aren't interested in reading the entire article, I'm going to quote what I feel is the most important takeaway from it:
This year, take a moment to check your assumptions and your stereotypes, especially if you notice yourself making extreme assumptions about the other sides you don't affiliate with.
In simple terms, we generally perceive groups we consider ourselves members of (in-group) more favorably and have a strong appreciation of the differences between members of our own group. However, for groups we do not consider ourselves members of (out-group) are disfavored and differences between members of that group are disregarded. In other words, we all tend to negatively stereotype anybody who isn't part of our particular club. When it comes to politics, we are especially prone to assuming extremes in others.
If you would like to read up on some research related to this topic please check out this article posted by The Conversation today, which inspired this post:
Something Democrats and Republicans have in common: Exaggerated stereotypes about both parties
For those of you who aren't interested in reading the entire article, I'm going to quote what I feel is the most important takeaway from it:
"....we conducted another experiment to see what would happen when we cleared up these misconceptions for a randomly selected subset of respondents. When we told Democrats, for example, that just a third of Republicans are evangelical, or Republicans that fewer than 10% of Democrats identify as atheist or agnostic, they reported less dislike toward the other side than did “uncorrected” respondents. Party stereotyping thus appears to be one source of fuel for incendiary partisanship."
This year, take a moment to check your assumptions and your stereotypes, especially if you notice yourself making extreme assumptions about the other sides you don't affiliate with.