[0815test]

> What that article tells me is that people say they belong to teams they don't actually belong to

I'm not sure that's consistent with the evidence. People are actively getting worse and worse at modeling the other "team", which strongly suggests that polarization is quite real indeed and not just a matter of different labels.

[AnimalMuppet]

Democrats with higher education are getting worse and worse at modeling Republicans. I think that means that, in higher education, Republicans get exposed to real Democrats, and Democrats get exposed to a caricature of Republicans.

[asark]

If true, that seems odd. There was an awful lot of very public searching for "what are Republicans, and how can we understand and empathize with them more?" after the last election. Tons. It's ongoing, in fact. It's mostly been—to an almost absurd degree—very gentle and good-hearted. If there's ever been anything like this sort of massive effort by Republican media figures and public intellectuals, I'd love to know about it, because their findings would surely be fascinating. I doubt there has been, at least in the last 30 years or so.

[josinalvo]

> what are Republicans, and how can we understand and empathize with them more?" after the last election. Tons.

> very gentle and good-hearted.

That has not been my impression. Just one data point.

[AnimalMuppet]

I would say there was some people trying to understand. It just gets lost in all the people saying "Trump is evil! How could you be so stupid? You're all such idiots!" Those people are both more numerous (in my opinion) and closer to the microphones.

And of those trying to understand, some were trying to understand, and some were trying to understand how to get votes better.

[SketchySeaBeast]

I'd like to see a comparison between a survey of espoused party values and the oppositions understanding - I wonder if someone was to look at the values that the political leaders are saying and voting for would there be as wide a gap, or would it fall more in line with what people believe of a party and it's members?

On a person per person basis there's dehumanizing caricature, but I wonder if you compare it to the party to which the person claims to belong, if it would be as out to lunch.