Okay, so I stumbled upon this article, “Science is Revealing Why American Politics Are So Intensely Polarized,” and I was like, “Yeah, tell me something I don’t know!” But then I actually read it, and, well, I had to try some of the stuff out for myself.
First, I started by just reading the article. I mean, really reading it, not just skimming. I took notes, highlighting the parts that talked about things like “affective polarization” and “social sorting.” It’s all fancy talk for how we increasingly dislike people who don’t agree with us and how we hang out more and more with people who think like we do.
Then I decided to do a little experiment. I went on social media, because that’s where all the political brawls happen, right? Normally, I just scroll past the stuff I don’t agree with, or maybe I’ll fire off a snarky comment if I’m feeling feisty. But this time, I forced myself to actually read some posts from people on the “other side.”
It was painful, I’m not gonna lie. My blood pressure definitely went up a few points. But I tried to understand where they were coming from, even if I thought they were totally wrong. I even read some of the articles they shared, and that was even more of a challenge.
Next, I looked at my own social circle. I realized that, yeah, most of my friends and family pretty much agree with me on the big political stuff. I mean, we have our disagreements, but we’re all generally on the same team. That’s that “social sorting” thing in action.
- So I decided, what the hell, let’s mix it up!
- I took a look at who I am following, and who are they, really.
- Maybe make friends on other social platform?
It’s not like I’m going to suddenly become best friends with someone who has completely opposite political views, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to at least try to understand them a little better. I reached out to a couple of people I know who are on the opposite side of the political spectrum and just asked them to chat. Nothing confrontational, just “Hey, I’m trying to understand your perspective better. Wanna grab coffee?”
I will say, there are some hard conversations, after I finished read some messages, I felt bad, because I didn’t know that before. But I kept trying.
Did it change my mind about anything? Not really, to be honest. But it did make me think more about why people believe what they believe. And it definitely made me a little less quick to judge people who disagree with me. It’s a work in progress, that’s for sure. And it shows me how science reveals the truth under the surface.
