This is for the best.

squashed: kohenari:

Apparently, all of you people out there aren’t reading much that disagrees with positions you already hold. At least this is the conclusion reached by Eric Lawrence, John Sides, and Henry Farrell in the latest issue of Perspectives on Politics.

Are you just being lazy or did you try it for awhile and realize that reading something written from the opposite side of the political spectrum made you too angry every morning?

I’d guess lazy.

But, since it’s mostly left-wingers who read what I write, I might have to temper that criticism somewhat. Or at least add a note of congratulations for generally being more politically participatory than the right-wingers who aren’t reading this blog post — another conclusion you’ll find in the paper.

The complete abstract is here. The paper is here.

HT: Mike Wagner.

Cass Sunstein recently did an interesting talk on this. Even more concerningly, this sort of self-segregation tends to cause radicalization. If we’re not occasionally exposed to views other than our own, we become more entrenched in those views. While the Internet enables us to reach more people more easily, it also allows us to ignore more people more easily.

I attempt, in a limited way, to be an exception to this trend. I frequently read blogs written by people with whom I disagree. And I have a number of people who read what I write who frequently disagree with me. I would guess that about 50% of those reading what I right are vaguely on the political left. About 20% are somewhere on the political right. (The last 30% are mostly 14-year-old girls from the Phillipines. I don’t know why.)

In the interest of diversity of perspective, if you disagree with something I’ve written recently and want to write a rebuttal or think I’ve omitted something important, submit a response. I’ll probably post it.

Personally, I try to look for other POVs occasionally, when I’m getting to smug in my own opinions, but most of the time, I self-segregate to abate the rage.  I’m pretty sure that much rage isn’t healthy.