The Perception Gap

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We tend to narrower our conversation, only talk about voters, because that's who's most often pulled. The biggest voting group in america are non-voters or chronicar folks who don't vote regularly. For both groups, the number one sentiment, most strongly felt, or most commonly felt, towards the other side, was disgust, not anger. It was dsgust, which is a more dehumanizing emotion. So it speaks to the extent to which we are misunderstanding the other side.

What do you think the other side thinks? Guest Dan Vallone is the Director of More in Common U.S.A., an organization that’s been asking Democrats and Republicans that critical question. Their work has uncovered countless “perception gaps” in our understanding of each other. For example, Democrats think that about 30 percent of Republicans support "reasonable gun control," but in reality, it’s about 70 percent. Both Republicans and Democrats think that about 50 percent of the other side would feel that physical violence is justified in some situations, but the actual number for each is only about five percent. “Both sides are convinced that the majority of their political opponents are extremists,” says Dan. “And yet, that's just not true.” Social media encourages the most extreme views to speak the loudest and rise to the top—and it’s hard to start a conversation and work together when we’re all arguing with mirages. But Dan’s insights and the work of More in Common provide a hopeful guide to unraveling the distortions we’ve come to accept and correcting our foggy vision.