Eitan Hersh on Politics as Us-vs.-Them Competition

“Democrats and Republicans will cheer, boo, emote and say outlandish things because it is easier and more fun to think about politics in terms of us-vs.-them competition, just like with sports,” writes Eitan Hersh in a piece for FiveThirtyEight, published August 11, 2016.

Hersh found that about 18 percent of baseball fans in the Northeast said they would be upset if they had a son or daughter marry a fan of the rival team. He also found that the response to the political version of the question – if they’d be upset if their child married someone from the other party – is roughly the same. “Partisan polarization is often not about issues or ideology, but about social identity, teamsmanship and feelings of who is the in-group and who is the out-group,” he observes.

But as Hersh notes, the stakes in sports and in politics are quite different. 

Read the article here.