Extreme Views = Can Amplify Polarization Polarization has been abetted by many factors. Americans are sorting themselves out geographically, living in increasingly politically homogeneous neighborhoods. Social media & the proliferation of media channels via the Internet & TV has played a role, allowing people to communicate exclusively with people like themselves. Identity & the growth of identity politics have also played a role – People have gravitated toward groups that feel they are in a zero-sum competition against one another. Francis Fukuyama – Stanford University, Professor of Political Science, 12/18 Distribution of Democrats & Republicans On 10-item Scale of Political Values, per Pew Research, USA Pew Survey (USA) Note: Ideological consistency based on a scale of 10 political values questions (see methodology).The blue area in this chart represents the ideological distribution of Democrats & Democratic-leaning independents; the red area of Republicans & Republican-leaning independents. The Internet Trends overlap of these two distributions is shaded purple. Source: Pew Surveys conducted 1994-2017. Stanford release. 181 2019