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4 - Detection

Mapping the Political Landscape (Stage 1)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2022

Taylor N. Carlson
Affiliation:
Washington University, St Louis
Jaime E. Settle
Affiliation:
College of William and Mary, Virginia
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Summary

Chapter 4 commences the empirical tests of our theory, beginning with Stage 1 of the 4D Framework: detection. We directly tackle a question buried implicitly in previous findings, as well as our own, that people prefer like-minded discussants: How do people detect the political views of others? The stakes of discussion may be higher in a polarized environment, but the readily available cues stemming from a divided and politicized society make the process of sorting into amicable discussions easier. We show that individuals are able to use a variety of cues to infer political leanings, including more obvious cues like demographic characteristics and extremely subtle cues, such as first names, pet preferences, and movie preferences. We then explore the existence of stereotypes that individuals hold about partisans, under the assumption that these attitudes could affect our ability to recognize others’ views and our willingness to engage in a discussion. We find that, consistent with research on affective polarization, individuals ascribe more negative personality traits to outpartisans and consider them to be ill-informed, ignorant, and overly reliant on partisan media.

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Chapter
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What Goes Without Saying
Navigating Political Discussion in America
, pp. 77 - 108
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Detection
  • Taylor N. Carlson, Washington University, St Louis, Jaime E. Settle, College of William and Mary, Virginia
  • Book: What Goes Without Saying
  • Online publication: 26 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108912495.004
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  • Detection
  • Taylor N. Carlson, Washington University, St Louis, Jaime E. Settle, College of William and Mary, Virginia
  • Book: What Goes Without Saying
  • Online publication: 26 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108912495.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Detection
  • Taylor N. Carlson, Washington University, St Louis, Jaime E. Settle, College of William and Mary, Virginia
  • Book: What Goes Without Saying
  • Online publication: 26 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108912495.004
Available formats
×