We may have reached peak polarization. The researchers Brian Schaffner, of the University of Massachusetts and Samantha Luks, managing director of scientific research at YouGov, showed people the two photos below, of President Donald Trump’s inauguration on the left and former President Barack Obama’s on the right:
Trump voters were overwhelmingly more likely than Clinton voters to say Obama’s photo was actually Trump’s. What’s more, 15 percent of Trump voters told the researchers there are actually more people in the photo from Trump’s inauguration—the one with big, bare white patches that are clearly be-peopled in Obama’s photo.
“Some Trump supporters in our sample decided to use this question to express their support for Trump rather than to answer the survey question factually,” they wrote in The Washington Post recently.
It’s not just Republicans; studies show both Democrats and Republicans like the same policy better when they’re told it’s supported by their own party.
[For more of this story, written by Olga Khazan, go to https://www.theatlantic.com/sc...ical-bubbles/514451/]
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