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Cited by 1,250Electoral Systems and Political ParticipationOpinion Dynamics and Social InfluenceMedia Influence and Politics

Have American's Social Attitudes Become More Polarized?

DiMaggio, Paul, Evans, John, Bryson, Bethany·1996·American Journal of Sociology
DOI 10.1086/230995
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Abstract

Many observers have asserted with little evidence that Americans' social opinions have become polarized. Using General Social Survey and National Election Survey social attitude items that have been repeated regularly over 20 years, the authors ask (1) Have Americans' opinions become more dispersed (higher variance)? (2) Have distributions become flatter or more bimodal (declining kurtosis)? (3) Have opinions become more ideologically constrained within and across opinion domains? (4) Have paired social groups become more different in their opinions? The authors find little evidence of polarization over the past two decades, with attitudes toward abortion and opinion differences between Republican and Democratic party identifiers the exceptional cases.

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Crossref · 10.1086/230995

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  • The scenario in Figure 1 (abortion attitudes) has been identified as a clear case of polarization by DiMaggio et al. (1996) and others.

    “The scenario in Figure 1 has been identified as a clear case of polarization by DiMaggio et al. (1996) and others.”

    From Disambiguation of social polarization concepts and measures (2016) · cites this paper as DiMaggio et al. (1996)

  • Previous work on polarization often fails to systematically distinguish the specific ways in which polarization is realized.

    “Occurrences of polarization frequently appear in the sociology and political science literature (Baldassarri & Gelman, 2008;Bartels, 2000;Brownstein, 2007;DiMaggio, Evans, & Bryson, 1996;Fiorina, Abrams, & Pope, 2010;Hetherington & Weiler, 2009;Hunter, 1991;McCarty, Poole, & Rosenthal, 2008), but the specific ways in which polarization is realized are not systematically distinguished.”

    From Disambiguation of social polarization concepts and measures (2016) · cites this paper as DiMaggio, Evans, & Bryson, 1996

  • Existing formal measures of polarization are often specific to the analyzed dataset or topic, not fully formalized, not evaluated against other measures, or composite of the measures presented here.

    “In those cases in which a formal measure is provided (see Christen, Ott, & Schwarz, 2013;DiMaggio et al., 1996;Fiorina et al., 2010;Estaban & Ray 2012), it may be specific to the analyzed dataset or topic of interest, not fully formalized, not evaluated compared to other measures and/or presented as a measure that is a composite of the measures presented here.”

    From Disambiguation of social polarization concepts and measures (2016) · cites this paper as DiMaggio et al., 1996

  • The abortion attitude data in Figure 1 are trimodal in most years, with a liberal group, a central group, and a third group on the far conservative side.

    “furthermore, in most years there is a third group created by an upturn on the far conservative (right) side.So in this strict sense that data is trimodal and would result in a measure of three groups for most years.”

    From Disambiguation of social polarization concepts and measures (2016) · cites this paper as DiMaggio et al., 1996

  • The term polarization is sometimes used to refer to a static property and sometimes to a process.

    “The term polarization is sometimes used to refer to a static property and sometimes a process (DiMaggio et al., 1996).”

    From Disambiguation of social polarization concepts and measures (2016) · cites this paper as DiMaggio et al., 1996

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Authors
DiMaggio, P., Evans, J., & Bryson, B.
Affiliations
Princeton University (US)
ORCID
Venue
American Journal of Sociology
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Published
1996-11
Volume
102
Issue
3
Pages
690-755
ISSN
  • 0002-9602 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-5390
DOI
10.1086/230995
OpenAlex
W1980565545
Semantic Scholar
9309e03454a95c6e19f999c5b11d5ae6889c36a8
Cited by
1,250
References
56
Citations by year
2026: 59 · 2025: 77 · 2024: 88 · 2023: 111 · 2022: 85 · 2021: 95 · 2020: 90 · 2019: 62 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 38 · 2016: 42 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 49 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 27
FWCI
54.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
American Journal of Sociology (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
Keywords
social attitudes, political polarization, kurtosis, ideological constraints, abortion attitudes, party identification

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