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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Why are people politically ‘segregated’? Social behaviour holds a clue

People in the United States tend to associate with others who hold views that are similar to their own — but more radical.
Men are pictured on a street filled with campaign posters in Manila, Philippines

People become politically segregated partly because they seek out others who hold more extreme versions of their own views, a survey suggests. Credit: Ezra Acayan/Getty

In recent decades, people in the United States have become increasingly isolated from those with opposing political opinions. This ‘political segregation’ stems partly from a desire to interact with people who have more extreme political leanings than one’s own, a new study shows1.

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Nature 612, 10 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03774-6

References

  1. Goldenberg, A. et al. Nature Hum. Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01474-9 (2022).

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