PsyPost
No Result
View All Result
PsyPost
No Result
View All Result
Home Exclusive Social Psychology Political Psychology

Extreme partisan segregation goes down to a hyper-local level in the United States

by Eric W. Dolan
August 7, 2021
in Political Psychology

[Subscribe to PsyPost on YouTube to stay up-to-date on the latest developments in psychology and neuroscience]

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Democrats and Republicans physically cluster together even in small geographic areas, such as cities and neighborhoods, according to new research published in Nature Human Behaviour. The study indicates that American voters live in politically isolated residential environments with very little local exposure to members of the opposing party.

“The geographic separation of Democrats and Republicans is something that is easily observable in a macro sense, in that we can look at county or state maps of the presidential vote and see clear red and blue areas, and this is phenomenon has been shown in research to influence electoral outcomes, representation, and policy,” explained lead researcher Jacob R. Brown, a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University.

“But the measurement of partisan segregation is usually quite blunt, relying on aggregate summaries, and we were interested in using individual-level data to measure exposure to Democratic and Republican neighbors with greater specificity than prior studies.”

For their study, the researchers used the residential addresses of every registered voter in the United States to calculate the partisan segregation of more than 180 million individuals.

“We measure the local residential partisan exposure of every voter in the country by identifying their 1,000 nearest registered neighbors, calculating the distance they live from each of these neighbors, and creating a weighted average of the proportion of their neighbors who are Democratic voters or Republican voters that gives greater weight to neighbors who live closer to you,” Brown explained to PsyPost.

The researchers found a high degree of partisan segregation across the country. “Many voters live with very little exposure to neighbors of the opposite party,” Brown said. Democrat exposure to Republicans tended to be lower than Republican exposure to Democrats.

The most extreme political isolation was found among Democrats living in densely populated cities like New York, with 10 percent of them encountering a Republican only one out of 10 times in their neighborhood. A high level of political isolation was also observed among Republicans living in low-density rural areas.

But this political isolation was not just a result of the partisan-leanings of urban and rural populations. Democrats and Republicans tended to be segregated from one another within suburban areas, and even within neighborhoods.

“Even when Democrats and Republicans live in the same small region, such as a city or neighborhood, we still see that they tend to live in different parts of these small geographies. This demonstrates a pervasive level of separation even conditional on living in the same larger area,” Brown said.

Partisan segregation also appeared to be distinct from racial and ethnic segregation. “Partisan segregation is correlated with racial segregation, but cannot be fully explained by it. For example, even just looking at same-race neighbors, we still see Democrats and Republicans clustering together,” Brown told PsyPost.

Previous research has found that political polarization among Americans has grown rapidly in the last 40 years, and the researchers fear that political isolation could be a driving force behind ideological extremism. But the causes and consequences of the observed segregation are still unclear.

“Future questions include how living in homogeneous neighborhoods influences voters, in their political participation and their own partisan attitudes,” Brown said. “The level of micro-segregation shown in the paper also motivates inquiries into what forces drive political segregation. These are ongoing research efforts by myself and colleagues.”

The study, “The measurement of partisan sorting for 180 million voters“, was authored by Jacob R. Brown and Ryan D. Enos.

 

ShareTweetSendScanShareSharePinSend

Get all the latest updates on new psychology research with the free PsyPost app.
 


NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP

STAY CONNECTED

TRENDING

Coffee drinking is largely unrelated to psychological well-being, according to new research

Mothers’ depressive symptoms appear to affect children’s socio-emotional development, partly through parenting practices

Study identifies a robust tendency to underestimate how much others appreciate being reached out to

Listening to relaxing music can improve cognitive performance, study suggests

The chemical imbalance theory of depression is dead, but that doesn’t mean antidepressants don’t work

Study identifies facets of American conservatism that differentially predict negativity bias and life satisfaction

RECENT

The chemical imbalance theory of depression is dead, but that doesn’t mean antidepressants don’t work

Listening to relaxing music can improve cognitive performance, study suggests

Study identifies facets of American conservatism that differentially predict negativity bias and life satisfaction

Robotic arms with a brain-machine interface allows partially paralyzed man to feed himself

Benevolent sexism does not appear to contribute to women’s sexual dissatisfaction

  • Cognitive Science
  • COVID-19
  • Mental Health
  • Social Psychology
  • Drug Research
  • Conspiracy Theories
  • Meditation
  • Psychology of Religion
  • Aviation Psychology and Human Factors
  • Relationships and Sexual Health
Powered by

About

PsyPost is a psychology and neuroscience news website dedicated to reporting the latest research on human behavior, cognition, and society. (READ MORE...)

  • Contact us
  • Privacy policy

No Result
View All Result
  • About
    • Newsletter signup form
  • Cart
  • Checkout
  • Contact
  • Contact us
  • My account
  • Privacy policy
  • Psychology news
  • PsyPost app privacy policy
  • Shop
  • SmartMag Home

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used.