Have Americans' Attitudes Become More Polarized?—An Update*

Abstract

Objective I examine polarization in public opinion using the method of DiMaggio, Evans, and Bryson (DEB) (1996), but go further than DEB by using newly available years of survey data.Method Like DEB, I derive aggregate distributional parameters for social groups in each year of the surveys, and then regress the year of the surveys on each parameter.Results As in DEB's original paper, there is little evidence of general polarization in attitudes between the early 1970s and today. However, while DEB found some evidence that polarization in the public may be the result of polarization in our political system, with the additional years of data this conclusion is inescapable.Conclusions Although political scientists have recently found polarization among our elected officials on economic issues, it seems clear that members of the public who identify with the partisan labels of our political system are becoming polarized on moral issues.