Unwarranted Disdain

Chapter 8 presents one of the book's most sobering findings: affective polarization (e.g. the emotional disdain Democrats and Republicans feel for one another) is both deeply personal and remarkably stable. Drawing on four national surveys conducted during the 2024 election, the authors find that partisan hostility extends far beyond politicians and policies, encompassing everyday voters. Both parties overwhelmingly describe their counterparts in moral and psychological terms, such as “selfish,” “hypocritical,” and “mean,” while rarely attributing positive traits such as honesty or generosity. These perceptions persist across the election cycle, unaffected by major events like Joe Biden's withdrawal or the Trump assassination attempt. Importantly, the chapter demonstrates that these negative attitudes are weakly correlated with actual policy disagreements on issues like immigration and the economy. The data suggest that Americans dislike and distrust one another not because of rational ideological differences, but because partisan identity itself has become a primary social fault line in modern American life.