But given how much Klein has done to elevate political and social science, it’s hard to find a political scientist not in his debt. Of course, Klein’s book recognizes that polarization doesn't come from psychology alone, but from the interplay of political psychology and political context. Drawing on Liliana Mason’s book, Klein argues that contemporary polarization is especially pernicious because various social identities become aligned with partisan groupings. And even for some of the most salient contemporary social identities, the connection between those identities and partisanship remains far from perfect. These groups have gotten less attention from recent political science research, partly because they’re harder to study through the surveys and experiments we now emphasize.

Source: Washington Post January 29, 2020 12:45 UTC