Americans Are Increasingly Segregating Themselves in Ideological Enclaves [View all]

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http://www.alternet.org/culture/americans-are-increasingly-segregating-themselves-ideological-enclaves

Does your next-door neighbor vote the same way you do? How about the couple who live across the street, or your friends on the next block?

The odds you answered “yes” or “probably” to those questions have increased dramatically in recent decades. Forget red states and blue states: We’re increasingly living in red or blue counties, cities, even neighborhoods.

This phenomenon has been widely cited as one reason behind our current political polarization: It allows strident voices on the right and left to fairly insist they’re fairly representing their constituents. But why exactly are we engaging in this sort of ideological segregation?

Newly published research suggests this double-edged dynamic is driven by a basic psychological pull.