«Breaking News» Americans change how they identify their race, religion and sexuality to better match their politics

Some Americans are shifting the ways they define and identify themselves to better match their political ideologies, according to a new paper.

While the common notion is that the ways in which people identify – by race, religion and sexuality, for instance – are immutable facts that influence their political ideology, a researcher at New York University has found evidence that the opposite is true for a 'small but significant' number of Americans.

'What's happening now is that political identifies are at the forefront, and are in some sense helping lead people to adjust their other identities to be in better alignment with their political identities,' NYU Professor Patrick J. Egan told DailyMail.com.

Egan used the General Social Survey for his research, pulling together data on public opinions on politics and social issues to examine the extent to which people become more or less religious, or identify as gay versus straight, as their political ideologies evolve and solidify.

A congregation in Hixson, Tennessee kneels in prayer in September 2017.  A new paper by an NYU researcher finds that some Americans change how they identify on issues like religion based on their political leanings. For example, conservatives are much more likely than liberals to redefine themselves as born-again Christians, while liberals are more likely to leave the church

He used survey data that was gathered from the same set of 3,900 people, starting in 2006, 2008 and 2010, to see how those identities changed over time and how their political ideologies ultimately dovetailed with those changes. 

Respondents to the survey rated themselves on a seven-point scale from extremely liberal to extremely conservative, and then answered questions about how they identify based on religion, ancestry, and even sexual preference.

In his draft paper, first reported on by FiveThirtyEight, Egan found a portion of respondents experienced shifts in how they self-identified. He also found correlations between those shifts and the overarching political views that people held. 

'We have ideas of what the prototypical liberal Democrat looks like in terms of race, religion and otherwise, and we have similar ideas for Republicans,' Egan said. 'A small but significant share of Americans are shifting their identities to match the prototypes.' 

For example, conservatives were much more likely than liberals to redefine themselves as born-again Christians or to stop identifying as non-religious, while the inverse was true of liberals: they were more likely to abandon religion and stop describing themselves as Christian.

Liberal Democrats were significantly more likely that conservative Republicans to change their responses over time to newly identify as Latino, or to say they had African, Asian or Hispanic ancestry.

In addition, conservatives were more likely than liberals to stop identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual over time, while liberals were more likely to newly define themselves in one of those ways.

What people increasingly want to hear is that they're great and the other side is awful.                                         -Lilliana Mason, University of Maryland

Polarization between the two political parties is likely a culprit in this emerging pattern – and those divisions appear to be getting deeper, Egan said.

'We are at a post-World War II high in the extent to which Americans are polarized in respect to politics and ideology,' he said. 'There are so many aspects of our current political situation that continue to heighten polarization and heighten all the social practices that go with it.'

University of Pennsylvania Professor Michele Margolis had similar findings in her book, 'From Politics to Pews,' which found that church attendance among Democrats shrank from 2002-2004 – a time when former President George W. Bush was emphasizing his own religion in the context of debates on abortion and gay marriage.

'Your partisanship is, in part, affecting your level of religiosity,' Margolis told DailyMail.com. 'Whether you're a member of a church, whether you're are religious non-identifier, or how religious you are in your church – that's a function of your politics.'

People listen to a prayer as anti-abortion activists from around the U.S. gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in January 2018 for the annual 'March for Life.' Abortion has long been a highly divisive political issue, one in which opponents frequently invoke religion

The shift toward political parties becoming more fully formed American identities has been taking place since the 1980s, said Lilliana Mason, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland and author of 'Uncivil Agreements: How Politics Became Our Identity.'

Both major American political parties used to have politicians who represented a spectrum of partisan ideas within their own party, for example: liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats. 

But leaders in each party have been going through a decades-long period of sorting themselves into more narrowly defined political identities that prioritize winning above all else - which Mason said can make it more difficult to reach agreements across the aisle.

'A lot of this is (resulting in) the lack of compromise that we see in the government, the gridlock that you see in Congress, a general hardening of party identities,' Mason told DailyMail.com. 'Both sides think the other side is more extreme and think of their own party as not very extreme at all. Both sides think that compromise means their side getting what they want.' 

The shift is not a good thing she said, adding that media have contributed to the evolution of party as identity and the news has become more partisan as media outlets seek to cater to one audience or another.

News outlets 'have to choose a certain group of people (to target), because most people don't want to read news that reflects badly for their party,' Mason said. 'What people increasingly want to hear is that they're great and the other side is awful.' 

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https://hienalouca.com/2018/09/12/americans-change-how-they-identify-their-race-religion-and-sexuality-to-better-match-their-politics/
Main photo article Some Americans are shifting the ways they define and identify themselves to better match their political ideologies, according to a new paper.
While the common notion is that the ways in which people identify – by race, religion and sexuality, for instance – are immutable facts that influence the...

It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.

Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.

Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca





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