The international initiative More in Common, in collaboration with Purpose and YouGov, recently released an extensive report on the state of civic life among the American electorate.

Reviewing research on how contemporary Americans perceive the political climate in the United States, they assert that more Americans than ever perceive deep partisan division between Democrats and Republicans; meanwhile, trust in members of other, rival, political groups and in long-standing institutions is in decline. This polarization is known to be driven by numerous factors, including:

• Rapid demographic changes
• Increased economic inequality, stagnation in median wage, and job insecurity
• The persistent threat of terrorism post 9/11
• The “echo chamber” effect of social media
• Partisanship of cable television and other media sources
• Erosion of confidence in the “American dream.”

Yet, they contend, “A less recognized factor of polarization is how it is shaped by competing ways of perceiving and experiencing the world. Previous research in social psychology, behavioral economics, and neuroscience suggests that political behavior is strongly impacted by people’s core beliefs” (p. 18).

Core beliefs are defined as “the system of beliefs, values and identities that reflect each individual’s experience and shape his or her interpretation of the world” (p. 18). The authors contend that we can better explain similarities and differences in political attitudes among Americans by looking at these core beliefs in interaction with traditional demographic categories such as race, gender, income, or party affiliation.

Context and Methodology

Responses were collected from December 2017 to January 2018 via YouGov. A total of 8,000 respondents were surveyed. Forty-five of these respondents were excluded on the basis of response quality, leaving a total sample of 7,955. All respondents provided demographic information and completed the 58 items measuring core beliefs. Additionally, each respondent completed a section on one of four thematic issue areas:

1. Immigration and American identity
2. Race and social justice
3. Gender and sexuality
4. Religion and extremism

Thirty-hour long interviews with individuals who were distributed across the 7 tribes were also conducted. Additionally, 6 different focus groups, consisting of 8-10 people were also conducted. These interviews provided additional qualitative data on American political attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

The core beliefs assessed are listed and defined below (see p. 22):

• Group identity: the extent to which people identify with different groups based on nationality, gender, political party, ethnicity and other factors; views on who is mistreated in American society
• Perceived threat: the extent to which people see the world as a dangerous place
• Parenting style and authoritarian disposition: basic philosophies regarding people’s approach to parenting, which past research suggests may have important predictive power in explaining their attitudes towards more general public policies and authoritarianism
• Moral foundations: the extent to which people endorse certain moral values or “foundations,” including fairness, care, purity, authority and loyalty
• Personal agency: the extent to which people view personal success as the product of individual factors (such as hard work and discipline) versus societal factors (such as luck and circumstance).

Finally, the political views assessed consisted of questions concerned with 7 issue areas:

1. Immigration, refugees, the border wall, DACA, and sanctuary cities
2. American identity and patriotism
3. Police shootings, terrorism, and religion
4. Race, racism, social justice, and white privilege
5. Gender, sexuality, and sexism
6. Media and political discourse
7. Censorship, hate speech, political correctness, and belief in conspiracy theories

The researchers then conducted a cluster analysis on the individual survey responses, ultimately Identifying seven “tribes,” or segments of the electorate which distinctive sets of characteristics.

The Seven Tribes

The Exhausted Majority

“While members of the ‘wing’ groups (on both the left and the right) tend to hold strong and consistent views across a range of political issues, those in the Exhausted Majority tend to deviate significantly in their views from issue to issue.

“Similarly, most Americans hold complex views on refugees. Sixty-three percent of Americans are concerned that the refugee screening process ‘is not tough enough to keep out possible terrorists,’ but 64 percent simultaneously believe that ‘people should be able to take refuge in other countries, including America, to escape from war or persecution.’ Just 27 percent of Devoted Conservatives agree in this principle of the US accepting refugees. This suggests that the Exhausted Majority is more practical and less ideological than its more extreme counterparts (p. 12-13).”

“Public debates are often dominated by voices that come from the furthest ends of the spectrum and who are the least interested in finding common ground. This makes it much harder to make progress on these issues, deepening the frustration felt by many in the middle (see p. 70).”

Communicating Across Divides

A majority of all segments agree that problems of racism are at least somewhat serious (82 percent overall), and 75 percent of the country believes that acts of racism are at least somewhat common. Furthermore, 60 percent of Americans believe that white supremacists are a growing threat in the United States, including 61 percent of the Moderates and 56 percent of the Politically Disengaged (p. 63).

Conclusions

Why Are These Findings Important?

“The cultural divide of the two Americas looms larger at high incomes . . . A theme throughout this book is that the cultural differences between states — the things that make red and blue America feel like different places — boil down to differences among richer people in these states.”

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