The Closed Partisan Mind
The Closed Partisan Mind

Author: Matthew D. Luttig

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2023-04-15

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 1501768905

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The Closed Partisan Mind traces the roots of partisan polarization to psychological closed-mindedness in the electorate and the changing perception of politics created by polarized political leaders and the new media environment. American politics today can be defined by the intense and increasingly toxic divide between Democrats and Republicans. Matthew D. Luttig explores why so many Americans have endorsed this level of political conflict. Luttig illustrates how the psychological need for closure leads people, regardless of whether they identify as Democrat or Republican, to express more polarized political attitudes. This association between closed minds and partisan polarization is a new phenomenon and can be traced to broader changes in American society, such as the creation of ideologically distinct political parties and a fragmented media environment. These developments have simplified politics into a black-or-white, us-versus-them conflict—making politics appeal to those with closed minds. Today, strong partisans do not just cheer for their political party to win elections. Instead, more akin to religious true believers, strong partisans use their affiliation as a means of understanding right and wrong, friend and enemy, true and false. The Closed Partisan Mind reveals that these dynamics have manifested in both a new type of partisanship and a new type of partisan. The emergence of this new closed partisanship illustrates the dangers that polarization has wrought on society, politics, and the minds of Americans.

Partisan Hearts and Minds
Partisan Hearts and Minds

Author: Donald P. Green

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2004-01-01

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 9780300101560

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A treatment of party identification, in which three political scientists argue that identification with political parties powerfully determines how citizens look at politics and cast their ballots. They build a case for the continuing theoretical and political significance of partisan identities.

The Closed Partisan Mind
The Closed Partisan Mind

Author: Matthew D. Luttig

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2023-04-15

Total Pages: 157

ISBN-13: 1501768913

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The Closed Partisan Mind traces the roots of partisan polarization to psychological closed-mindedness in the electorate and the changing perception of politics created by polarized political leaders and the new media environment. American politics today can be defined by the intense and increasingly toxic divide between Democrats and Republicans. Matthew D. Luttig explores why so many Americans have endorsed this level of political conflict. Luttig illustrates how the psychological need for closure leads people, regardless of whether they identify as Democrat or Republican, to express more polarized political attitudes. This association between closed minds and partisan polarization is a new phenomenon and can be traced to broader changes in American society, such as the creation of ideologically distinct political parties and a fragmented media environment. These developments have simplified politics into a black-or-white, us-versus-them conflict—making politics appeal to those with closed minds. Today, strong partisans do not just cheer for their political party to win elections. Instead, more akin to religious true believers, strong partisans use their affiliation as a means of understanding right and wrong, friend and enemy, true and false. The Closed Partisan Mind reveals that these dynamics have manifested in both a new type of partisanship and a new type of partisan. The emergence of this new closed partisanship illustrates the dangers that polarization has wrought on society, politics, and the minds of Americans.

Competing Motives in the Partisan Mind
Competing Motives in the Partisan Mind

Author: Eric Groenendyk

Publisher:

Published: 2013-09-05

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0199969809

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Party identification may be the single most powerful predictor of voting behavior, yet scholars disagree whether this is good or bad for democracy. Competing Motives in the Partisan Mind provides a window into the nature of party identification by examining circumstances in which political attitudes and party identities collide.

Uncivil Agreement
Uncivil Agreement

Author: Lilliana Mason

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2018-04-16

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 022652468X

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The psychology behind political partisanship: “The kind of research that will change not just how you think about the world but how you think about yourself.” —Ezra Klein, Vox Political polarization in America has moved beyond disagreements about matters of policy. For the first time in decades, research has shown that members of both parties hold strongly unfavorable views of their opponents. This is polarization rooted in social identity, and it is growing. The campaign and election of Donald Trump laid bare this fact of the American electorate, its successful rhetoric of “us versus them” tapping into a powerful current of anger and resentment. With Uncivil Agreement, Lilliana Mason looks at the growing social gulf across racial, religious, and cultural lines, which have recently come to divide neatly between the two major political parties. She argues that group identifications have changed the way we think and feel about ourselves and our opponents. Even when Democrats and Republicans can agree on policy outcomes, they tend to view one other with distrust and to work for party victory over all else. Although the polarizing effects of social divisions have simplified our electoral choices and increased political engagement, they have not been a force that is, on balance, helpful for American democracy. Bringing together theory from political science and social psychology, Uncivil Agreement clearly describes this increasingly “social” type of polarization, and adds much to our understanding of contemporary politics.

Changing Minds or Changing Channels?
Changing Minds or Changing Channels?

Author: Kevin Arceneaux

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2013-08-27

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 022604744X

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We live in an age of media saturation, where with a few clicks of the remote—or mouse—we can tune in to programming where the facts fit our ideological predispositions. But what are the political consequences of this vast landscape of media choice? Partisan news has been roundly castigated for reinforcing prior beliefs and contributing to the highly polarized political environment we have today, but there is little evidence to support this claim, and much of what we know about the impact of news media come from studies that were conducted at a time when viewers chose from among six channels rather than scores. Through a series of innovative experiments, Kevin Arceneaux and Martin Johnson show that such criticism is unfounded. Americans who watch cable news are already polarized, and their exposure to partisan programming of their choice has little influence on their political positions. In fact, the opposite is true: viewers become more polarized when forced to watch programming that opposes their beliefs. A much more troubling consequence of the ever-expanding media environment, the authors show, is that it has allowed people to tune out the news: the four top-rated partisan news programs draw a mere three percent of the total number of people watching television. Overturning much of the conventional wisdom, Changing Minds or Changing Channels? demonstrate that the strong effects of media exposure found in past research are simply not applicable in today’s more saturated media landscape.

Closing of the American Mind
Closing of the American Mind

Author: Allan Bloom

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2008-06-30

Total Pages: 403

ISBN-13: 1439126267

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The brilliant, controversial, bestselling critique of American culture that “hits with the approximate force and effect of electroshock therapy” (The New York Times)—now featuring a new afterword by Andrew Ferguson in a twenty-fifth anniversary edition. In 1987, eminent political philosopher Allan Bloom published The Closing of the American Mind, an appraisal of contemporary America that “hits with the approximate force and effect of electroshock therapy” (The New York Times) and has not only been vindicated, but has also become more urgent today. In clear, spirited prose, Bloom argues that the social and political crises of contemporary America are part of a larger intellectual crisis: the result of a dangerous narrowing of curiosity and exploration by the university elites. Now, in this twenty-fifth anniversary edition, acclaimed author and journalist Andrew Ferguson contributes a new essay that describes why Bloom’s argument caused such a furor at publication and why our culture so deeply resists its truths today.

How America Lost Its Mind
How America Lost Its Mind

Author: Thomas E. Patterson

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2019-10-03

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 0806165685

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Americans are losing touch with reality. On virtually every issue, from climate change to immigration, tens of millions of Americans have opinions and beliefs wildly at odds with fact, rendering them unable to think sensibly about politics. In How America Lost Its Mind, Thomas E. Patterson explains the rise of a world of “alternative facts” and the slow-motion cultural and political calamity unfolding around us. We don’t have to search far for the forces that are misleading us and tearing us apart: politicians for whom division is a strategy; talk show hosts who have made an industry of outrage; news outlets that wield conflict as a marketing tool; and partisan organizations and foreign agents who spew disinformation to advance a cause, make a buck, or simply amuse themselves. The consequences are severe. How America Lost Its Mind maps a political landscape convulsed with distrust, gridlock, brinksmanship, petty feuding, and deceptive messaging. As dire as this picture is, and as unlikely as immediate relief might be, Patterson sees a way forward and underscores its urgency. A call to action, his book encourages us to wrest institutional power from ideologues and disruptors and entrust it to sensible citizens and leaders, to restore our commitment to mutual tolerance and restraint, to cleanse the Internet of fake news and disinformation, and to demand a steady supply of trustworthy and relevant information from our news sources. As philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote decades ago, the rise of demagogues is abetted by “people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” In How America Lost Its Mind, Thomas E. Patterson makes a passionate case for fully and fiercely engaging on the side of truth and mutual respect in our present arms race between fact and fake, unity and division, civility and incivility.

The Partisan Sort
The Partisan Sort

Author: Matthew Levendusky

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2009-12-15

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 0226473678

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As Washington elites drifted toward ideological poles over the past few decades, did ordinary Americans follow their lead? In The Partisan Sort, Matthew Levendusky reveals that we have responded to this trend—but not, for the most part, by becoming more extreme ourselves. While polarization has filtered down to a small minority of voters, it also has had the more significant effect of reconfiguring the way we sort ourselves into political parties. In a marked realignment since the 1970s—when partisan affiliation did not depend on ideology and both major parties had strong liberal and conservative factions—liberals today overwhelmingly identify with Democrats, as conservatives do with Republicans. This “sorting,” Levendusky contends, results directly from the increasingly polarized terms in which political leaders define their parties. Exploring its far-reaching implications for the American political landscape, he demonstrates that sorting makes voters more loyally partisan, allowing campaigns to focus more attention on mobilizing committed supporters. Ultimately, Levendusky concludes, this new link between party and ideology represents a sea change in American politics.

The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind
The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind

Author: Jason Weeden

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2014-10-05

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 1400851963

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Why your political views are more self-serving than you think When it comes to politics, we often perceive our own beliefs as fair and socially beneficial, while seeing opposing views as merely self-serving. But in fact most political views are governed by self-interest, even if we usually don't realize it. Challenging our fiercely held notions about what motivates us politically, this book explores how self-interest divides the public on a host of hot-button issues, from abortion and the legalization of marijuana to same-sex marriage, immigration, affirmative action, and income redistribution. Expanding the notion of interests beyond simple economics, Jason Weeden and Robert Kurzban look at how people's interests clash when it comes to their sex lives, social status, family, and friends. Drawing on a wealth of data, they demonstrate how different groups form distinctive bundles of political positions that often stray far from what we typically think of as liberal or conservative. They show how we engage in unconscious rationalization to justify our political positions, portraying our own views as wise, benevolent, and principled while casting our opponents' views as thoughtless and greedy. While many books on politics seek to provide partisans with new ways to feel good about their own side, The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind illuminates the hidden drivers of our politics, even if it's a picture neither side will find flattering.