M Keith Chen1, Ryne Rohla2. 1. Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. keith.chen@anderson.ucla.edu. 2. School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
Abstract
Research on growing American political polarization and antipathy primarily studies public institutions and political processes, ignoring private effects, including strained family ties. Using anonymized smartphone-location data and precinct-level voting, we show that Thanksgiving dinners attended by residents from opposing-party precincts were 30 to 50 minutes shorter than same-party dinners. This decline from a mean of 257 minutes survives extensive spatial and demographic controls. Reductions in the duration of Thanksgiving dinner in 2016 tripled for travelers from media markets with heavy political advertising-an effect not observed in 2015-implying a relationship to election-related behavior. Effects appear asymmetric: Although fewer Democratic-precinct residents traveled in 2016 than in 2015, Republican-precinct residents shortened their Thanksgiving dinners by more minutes in response to political differences. Nationwide, 34 million hours of cross-partisan Thanksgiving dinner discourse were lost in 2016 owing to partisan effects.
Research on growing American political polarization and antipathy primarily studies public institutions and political processes, ignoring private effects, including strained family ties. Using anonymized smartphone-location data and precinct-level voting, we show that Thanksgiving dinners attended by residents from opposing-party precincts were 30 to 50 minutes shorter than same-party dinners. This decline from a mean of 257 minutes survives extensive spatial and demographic controls. Reductions in the duration of Thanksgiving dinner in 2016 tripled for travelers from media markets with heavy political advertising-an effect not observed in 2015-implying a relationship to election-related behavior. Effects appear asymmetric: Although fewer Democratic-precinct residents traveled in 2016 than in 2015, Republican-precinct residents shortened their Thanksgiving dinners by more minutes in response to political differences. Nationwide, 34 million hours of cross-partisan Thanksgiving dinner discourse were lost in 2016 owing to partisan effects.
Authors: Rachel Hartman; Will Blakey; Jake Womick; Chris Bail; Eli J Finkel; Hahrie Han; John Sarrouf; Juliana Schroeder; Paschal Sheeran; Jay J Van Bavel; Robb Willer; Kurt Gray Journal: Nat Hum Behav Date: 2022-09-19
Authors: David Holtz; Michael Zhao; Seth G Benzell; Cathy Y Cao; Mohammad Amin Rahimian; Jeremy Yang; Jennifer Allen; Avinash Collis; Alex Moehring; Tara Sowrirajan; Dipayan Ghosh; Yunhao Zhang; Paramveer S Dhillon; Christos Nicolaides; Dean Eckles; Sinan Aral Journal: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Date: 2020-07-30 Impact factor: 11.205