Political Perception in the Polarized Era

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" Political Perception in the Polarized Era "
Ahler, Douglas James Lenz, Gabriel

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Language of Document	:	English
Record Number	:	915706
Doc. No	:	TL9050t71g
Main Entry	:	Ahler, Douglas James
Title & Author	:	Political Perception in the Polarized Era\ Ahler, Douglas JamesLenz, Gabriel
College	:	UC Berkeley
Date	:	2016
student score	:	2016
Abstract	:	“Self-Fulfilling Misperceptions of Public Polarization”Mass media convey deep divisions among citizens despite scant evidence for such ideological polarization. Do ordinary citizens perceive themselves to be more extreme and divided than they actually are? If so, what are the ramifications of such misperception? A representative sample from California provides evidence that voters from both sides of the state’s political divide perceive both their liberal and conservative peers’ positions as more extreme than they actually are, implying inaccurate beliefs about polarization. A second study again demonstrates this finding with an online sample and presents evidence that misperception of mass-level extremity can affect individuals’ own policy opinions. Experimental participants randomly assigned to learn the actual average policy-related predispositions of liberal and conservative Americans later report opinions that are 8-13% more moderate, on average. Thus, citizens appear to consider peers’ positions within public debate when forming their own opinions and adopt slightly more extreme positions as a consequence.“The Parties in Our Heads: Misperceptions About Party Composition and Their Consequences” (co-authored with Gaurav Sood)We document a consequential and heretofore unnoted perceptual phenomenon in American politics and public opinion: people considerably overestimate the share of party-stereotypical groups in the mass-level parties. For instance, people think that 32% of Democratic sup- porters are LGBT (6% in reality) and 38% of Republican supporters earn over
Added Entry	:	Lenz, Gabriel
Added Entry	:	UC Berkeley