Do Americans make decisions based on political identity or political values? That was the question asked by Lilliana Mason of the University of Maryland. She is a political psychologist who performed two nationwide surveys to find the answer. The results are startling.
In the surveys, she asked questions on six issues ranging from gun control to abortion. The purpose was to measure how strongly Americans identify as liberal or conservative. She also studied whether, or not, the two groups preferred to be around one another.
In all six issues, whether a person was liberal or conservative was a strong indicator of affective polarization than issue positions. Affective polarization is when two opposing groups reject one another.
The study shows that no matter what the issue, when surveyed Americans give an answer based on information in the news recently or given by a political elite.