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Saturday, January 30, 2021

Voters are starting to act like hard-core sports fans — with dangerous repercussions for democracy — Michael Devlin and Natalie Brown Devlin

Interesting take. It would tend to account for the curious lapses of rationality on both sides, even among usually highly rational people in their own fields.
How did American politics get to this point?

As sports communication researchers who have written extensively on the vast and powerful influence of identity on attitudes and behavior, we believe our work can offer some ways to understand recent events....
Administering a questionnaire that's used by sport communication researchers, we were able to show "team identification" – when applied to politics – can help explain certain beliefs and behaviors after the election.... 
Salon 
Voters are starting to act like hard-core sports fans — with dangerous repercussions for democracy
Michael Devlin, Associate Professor of Communication, Texas State University, and Natalie Brown Devlin, Assistant Professor of Advertising, University of Texas at Austin

4 comments:

  1. I have believed this for quite some time now, well over 10 years. Especially similar to football fans. Yet people can easily maintain their friendships and family relations with fans of other teams. Not so well in the political divide.

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  2. That's not just a US phenomenon: I've noticed various people I used to respect cross the border from rational, if extreme views, to the irrational.

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  3. Social media and misinformation to those susceptible. So many are getting their information via unvetted sources.

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  4. No such thing in Canada. Our hockey nuts are mild compared to your typical soccer fan.
    A Canadian politician isn't worth giving a fart about.

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