Hidden Tribes: A Study of America’s Polarized Landscape (hiddentribes.us) 0 comments However, a new study published this week titled “Hidden Tribes: A Study of America’s Polarized Landscape,” suggests people might not be all that different. America's Hidden Tribes. Others see the world as threatening, with isolated pockets of tranquility. It feels as though hard work is no longer rewarded, and the gap between rich and poor widens every year. Social scientists have long studied the underlying psychology of core beliefs and group identities― the fundamental ways we understand the world and align ourselves with others. Tribalism runs deep in their thinking. In the media, pundits score points, mock opponents, and talk over each other. They view threats to their safety as fearmongering by their opponents, not a clear and present danger to their wellbeing. Of course, public opinion research only tells a partial story. Their faith is often an important part of their lives. However, this broad agreement on the problem of racism does not extend to agreement on its symptoms or solution. The secure job, the growing wage, and the safety of neighborhood life where everyone knew each other—these all feel like relics of a bygone era. Tribe membership shows strong reliability in predicting views across different political topics. Since then, we have broadened our research agenda and incorporated several layers of social psychology research to provide a deeper analysis of the different factors contributing to polarization and social fracturing. A 7-country comparative study on the impacts of COVID-19. Core Belief 4: Moral Foundations. A range of major issues split the country, Immigration nowadays is bad for America, costing the welfare system and using resources that could be spent on Americans, Immigration is good for America, helping sectors of our economy to be more successful and competitive. Another way of conceptualizing this is that people tend to attribute life outcomes either to personal responsibility or to luck and circumstance.
Devoted Conservatives emphasize traditional values and American identity, while Progressive Activists are defined by a rejection of traditional authority and a focus on rectifying historical injustices. While 86 percent of Progressive Activists think Americans are too worried about terrorism, 84 percent of Devoted Conservatives believe Americans do not take terrorism seriously enough. In fact, we've identified seven distinct groups of Americans. These pillars, also called moral foundations, are: Fairness/Cheating: Relating to proportionality, equality, reciprocity, and rendering justice according to shared rules. The Hidden Tribes survey has collected over 200,000 pieces of information on the most pressing issues that frequently divide Americans, hence, it provides a new perspective on those issues. For example, a full 81 percent of the population―including Devoted Conservatives, who tend to be the most skeptical when it comes to questions of race―agrees that racism continues to be an at least somewhat serious problem in the United States. People differ in whether they see life outcomes as being shaped more by individuals’ choices or social forces beyond their control. More in Common took shape from work undertaken since 2016 to understand why so many societies were dividing around debates about their identity and belonging, and why people were being increasingly persuaded to see debates about immigration, refugees and diversity through the lens of ‘us-versus-them’. Our core beliefs influence what we think, what we consider important, and how we act. The Hidden Tribes survey just scratched the surface on those issues. When people don't understand each other, they can't converse or find common ground. The report that you can download here is the first part of More in Common's year-long Hidden Tribes project to understand our polarization and study what can reunite our fractured communities. A majority of Americans, whom we’ve called the "Exhausted Majority," are fed up by America’s polarization. By contrast, people who believe that personal responsibility plays a bigger role are more than four times more likely to strongly approve of Donald Trump’s performance than those who believe that luck and circumstance did. Furthermore, 60 percent of Americans believe that white supremacists are a growing threat in the United States. Purity/Disgust: Abhorrence for things that evoke disgust. We were determined to let the data tell us about Americans organically, rather than proving pre-baked assumptions. Three-quarters of all Americans believe there should be a pathway for these individuals to obtain citizenship through serving in the military or attending college. More fundamentally, the country is evenly divided on whether our changes in attitudes towards sex and sexuality are making America "more accepting and tolerant" or whether they are simply causing "America to lose its moral foundation". In addition, people with the most extreme views are often the most certain of their positions. The loudest and most extreme voices get heard, and others just feel like tuning out altogether. Write a review. The leading actors in this story are members of the "Traditional Conservative" segment we identified in our 2018 report, "Hidden Tribes: A Study of America's Polarized Landscape." The project sought to find out just how America was becoming fractured. More in Common’s published studies of public attitudes in several European countries and the United States are already regarded as among the most insightful and actionable analyses of public opinion. Devoted Conservatives (6 percent of the population) are deeply engaged with politics and hold strident, uncompromising views. The gist of the study is that most Americans are not nearly as divided as the vocal, divisive minorities at the extremes. Start by marking “Hidden Tribes: A Study of America's Polarized Landscape” as Want to Read: ... Start your review of Hidden Tribes: A Study of America's Polarized Landscape. The Election, COVID, Racism, and the Constructive Conflict Initiative Read about (and contribute to) the Constructive Conflict Initiative and its associated Blog—our effort to assemble what we collectively know about how to move beyond our hyperpolarized politics and start solving society's problems. A key reason is that polarization has become a business model. This methodology incorporates a range of recent insights from social psychology and A very different story than the tale of a deeply polarized America, split into two camps locked in a fight, determined to crush the other. December 2020
ABOUT MORE IN COMMON The report was conducted by More in Common, a new international initiative to build societies and communities that are stronger, more united, and more resilient to the increasing threats of polarization and social division. This is the message we’ve heard from more than 8,000 Americans in one of our country’s largest-ever studies of polarization: We hold dissimilar views on many issues. And while both same-sex marriage and the acceptance of transgender people have the support of three in five Americans, this does not reflect an enthusiastic embrace of new norms towards sexuality. They are willing to argue with anyone and avoid moderating their opinions or conceding points to the other side. Today's polarization reflects a perfect storm: Unsettling changes in our economy and society have left many Americans feeling like strangers in their own land. Recent research has found that people’s tendency towards authoritarianism―that is, their support for strong leaders and strict social hierarchy―is linked to their views on parenting style. The Wings are also the most unified internally. The institutions that once bound us are disappearing, and we no longer seem to have each other's backs. Through our questions, we measured several aspects of tribalism, including individuals’ pride in their group and the degree to which they believed their group members had a lot in common. As scholars Stephen Hawkins, Daniel Yudkin, Miriam Juan-Torres, and Tim Dixon argue in a report published Wednesday, “Hidden Tribes: A Study of America’s Polarized Landscape… Care/Harm: Protecting the vulnerable and helping those in need. They have a fatalistic view of politics and feel that the circumstances of their lives are beyond their control. Morality is about more than just equal treatment. In fact, the largest group that we uncovered in our research has so far been largely overlooked. Sex, gender, and morality. By focusing on core beliefs, we illuminated the hidden architecture that animates the lives and views of ordinary Americans. Ibid 8 12. Hidden Tribes: A Study of America's Polarized Landscape [pdf] (static1.squarespace.com) 69 points by Melchizedek on Oct 13, 2018 | hide | past | web | favorite | 50 comments: PostOnce on Oct 13, 2018. Last week, I posted an article in this space titled “Transcending Tribalism: A Promising New Study.” The article remains posted on the Civitas Project website; please read it if you haven’t done so. We asked subjects a series of questions designed to assess how concerned they were with each of the five moral foundations in their moral judgments. Who don ’ t ideologues who dismiss as evil or ignorant the people who don ’ t ideologues dismiss... 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