WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — A new poll from The Atlantic and PredictWise – a polling and analytics firm – ranked counties in the United States based on partisan prejudice. They said they found the most politically intolerant Americans “tend to be whiter, more highly educated, older, more urban and more partisan themselves.”
The Atlantic reports their findings matched with that of University of Pennsylvania professor Diana Mutz, who found highly educated people are “relatively isolated from political diversity.” It is the phenomenon of the so-called echo chambers people find themselves in, avoiding or not encountering other people who disagree with them.
The report found large parts of North Carolina and upstate New York “still seem to give their fellow Americans the benefit of the doubt, even when they disagree.” However, other places like Massachusetts and Florida people are far less understanding.
Montgomery, Prince George’s, Arlington, Fairfax, Charles, Prince William, Stafford, Fauquier, Rappahannock, Culpeper, Shenandoah, Frederick and Clarke counties all landed in the highest percentiles for overall political prejudice.
To explore the full map and read the full report from The Atlantic, click here.
“In general, Republicans seem to dislike Democrats more than Democrats dislike Republicans, PredictWise found,” the Atlantic reported, before pointing out other studies have found Democrats to be more intolerant of Republicans. “So it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on, but what’s clear is that both sides are becoming more hostile toward one another.”
