Americans are angry and taking sides about masks, opening businesses even whether the coronavirus is dangerous.
One UNL professor says 2020 is a year of extremes.
“I don’t think anyone could have forecast an event where effectively a virus becomes politicized. In other words, fundamental public health questions have taken on this really, really political and partisan tinge,” Kevin Smith, Olson Professor and chair of political science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln says.
He plans to follow up on a previous research study that suggests politics is making us sick. Americans surveyed following the last presidential election said they were depressed and stressed out. They lost sleep, spent too much time on social media…and even considered harming themselves.
“Astonishing numbers of American adults say politics is negatively affecting their social, psychological, emotional, and even physical health.”
Why are we so polarized?
Smith says genetics helps nudge us one way or the other.
“If you’re in an environment where a lot of the stimuli and a lot of the messages are playing on people’s innate predispositions to move in polarized directions, you know what, you’re gonna end up with a polarized society. And I think that’s exactly where we are right now.”
According to Smith, environmental factors contribute to a voter’s tendency to dig in.
“We have the rise of social media, we have the collapse of traditional gatekeepers. You know, people can live in their own echo chambers, we essentially live in an environment where if you have a predisposition to move strong one way on a political issue, I mean, this is an environment that is like tailor made for that,” Smith said.
Smith plans to go back into the field in the weeks before and after the upcoming election to see if there’s been any change in the last four years.