Changes

==Extreme polarization==

==Extreme polarization==

Dacher Keltner, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, has found that people have a powerful tendency to exaggerate the views of their ideological opponents, seeing, on average, twice as much difference as actually exists.  Moreover, he has turned up this “imagined [[extremism]]” in a variety of settings, including conflicts over abortion rights, the interpretation of a racial incident, the attitudes of homosexuals and Christian fundamentalists and the choices of English professors toward use of the “Western Canon” in university classes.

Dacher Keltner, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, has found that people have a powerful tendency to exaggerate the views of their ideological opponents, seeing, on average, twice as much difference as actually exists.  Moreover, he has turned up this “imagined [[extremism]]” in a variety of settings, including conflicts over [[abortion]] rights, the interpretation of a racial incident, the attitudes of homosexuals and Christian fundamentalists and the choices of English professors toward use of the “Western Canon” in university classes.

Partisans and nonpartisans in political disputes, Keltner's study finds, seriously overestimate the polarization between the two sides. Although a tendency to demonize one’s opponents is not a new understanding, Keltner’s work breaks new ground in being able to measure the extent of the effect by gathering hard data on actual versus perceived differences among the parties to a dispute as well as among neutral observers. <ref>Patricia McBroom, University of California, Berkeley, News Release, 1/4/97, ''Political attitudes in the U.S. are exaggerated, according to UC Berkeley psychologist in studies of “imagined Extremism.”''</ref>

Partisans and nonpartisans in political disputes, Keltner's study finds, seriously overestimate the polarization between the two sides. Although a tendency to demonize one’s opponents is not a new understanding, Keltner’s work breaks new ground in being able to measure the extent of the effect by gathering hard data on actual versus perceived differences among the parties to a dispute as well as among neutral observers. <ref>Patricia McBroom, University of California, Berkeley, News Release, 1/4/97, ''Political attitudes in the U.S. are exaggerated, according to UC Berkeley psychologist in studies of “imagined Extremism.”''</ref>