{"id":8712,"date":"2021-11-23T14:59:28","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T19:59:28","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-04-23T23:56:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T03:56:18","slug":"republicans-and-democrats-alike-say-its-stressful-to-talk-politics-with-people-who-disagree","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2021\/11\/23\/republicans-and-democrats-alike-say-its-stressful-to-talk-politics-with-people-who-disagree\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans and Democrats alike say it\u2019s stressful to talk politics with people who disagree"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The share of Americans who say having political conversations with those they disagree with is \u201cstressful and frustrating\u201d has increased in recent years. Nearly six-in-ten U.S. adults (59%) say they find these conversations stressful, up from 50% in May 2019, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in mid-September.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"border-width:1px;padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);--block-gap: inherit\" class=\"is-style-alternate wp-block-prc-block-collapsible has-background has-ui-beige-very-light-background-color has-border-color has-ui-beige-dark-border-color\" id=\"how-we-did-this\" data-wp-interactive=\"{&quot;namespace&quot;:&quot;prc-block\\\/collapsible&quot;}\" data-wp-context=\"{&quot;collapsibleId&quot;:&quot;how-we-did-this&quot;,&quot;isOpen&quot;:false}\" data-wp-class--is-open=\"context.isOpen\" data-wp-init--scroll-into-view=\"callbacks.onInitScrollIntoView\"><div class=\"wp-block-prc-block-collapsible__title\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.onClick\"><div>How we did this<\/div><button class=\"wp-block-prc-block-collapsible__icon\"><span data-wp-bind--hidden=\"context.isOpen\"><i class=\"icon icon-library__light icon__circle-plus\"><svg style=\"width: 1em; height: 1em;\"><use xlink:href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/plugins\/prc-icon-library\/build\/icons\/sprites\/light.svg#circle-plus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i><\/span><span data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!context.isOpen\" hidden><i class=\"icon icon-library__light icon__circle-minus\"><svg style=\"width: 1em; height: 1em;\"><use xlink:href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/plugins\/prc-icon-library\/build\/icons\/sprites\/light.svg#circle-minus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i><\/span><\/button><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-prc-block-collapsible__content\">\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand the public\u2019s views on having political conversations with people they usually disagree. For this analysis, we surveyed 10,371 U.S. adults in September 2021. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center\u2019s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/our-methods\/u-s-surveys\/the-american-trends-panel\/\">ATP\u2019s methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/11\/PP_2021.11.09_political-typology_TOPLINE.pdf\">the questions used<\/a> for the report, along with responses, and <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/stressful-convos-Methodology.pdf\">its methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-310-wide\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-14195\" href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2021\/11\/23\/republicans-and-democrats-alike-say-its-stressful-to-talk-politics-with-people-who-disagree\/ft_2021-11-23_stressfulconversations_01-png\/\"><img data-dominant-color=\"f2f1f0\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #f2f1f0;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/ft_2021.11.23_stressfulconversations_01.png?resize=480,955 480w, https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/ft_2021.11.23_stressfulconversations_01.png?resize=620,1234 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 480px, (max-width: 782px) 782px, 640px\" height=\"617\" width=\"310\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/ft_2021.11.23_stressfulconversations_01.png?w=310\" alt=\"A line graph showing that Americans increasingly find it stressful to talk politics with people who disagree with their views \" class=\"wp-image-14195 not-transparent\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This increase has come among Republicans and Democrats alike. Today, 58% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they find talking politics with people they disagree with to be stressful, up 11 percentage points since 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Similarly, six-in-ten Democrats and Democratic leaners say they find such conversations stressful and frustrating, up from 53% in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In March 2016, about half of Republicans (48%) and 45% of Democrats said political conversations with those they disagree with were stressful and frustrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-420-wide\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-14198\" href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2021\/11\/23\/republicans-and-democrats-alike-say-its-stressful-to-talk-politics-with-people-who-disagree\/ft_2021-11-23_stressfulconversations_02-png\/\"><img data-dominant-color=\"ede9de\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #ede9de;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/ft_2021.11.23_stressfulconversations_02.png?resize=480,794 480w, https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/ft_2021.11.23_stressfulconversations_02.png?resize=782,1294 782w, https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/ft_2021.11.23_stressfulconversations_02.png?resize=840,1390 840w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 480px, (max-width: 782px) 782px, 640px\" height=\"695\" width=\"420\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/ft_2021.11.23_stressfulconversations_02.png?w=420\" alt=\"A bar chart showing that White adults are more likely to say talking politics with those they disagree with is \u2018stressful and frustrating\u2019\" class=\"wp-image-14198 not-transparent\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nearly two-thirds of White adults (65%) say they find talking about politics with people they disagree with to be stressful \u2013 much higher than the shares of Black (43%), Hispanic (47%) and Asian (53%) adults who say this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those under the age of 50 (57%) are slightly less likely to find such conversations to be stressful and frustrating than those 50 and older (61%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While nearly equal shares of Republicans (58%) and Democrats (60%) say discussing politics with those they disagree with is stressful, the more moderate members of each party are less likely to find such conversations stressful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About six-in-ten conservative Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (61%) find these conversations stressful compared with about half of moderate and liberal Republicans (53%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two-thirds of liberal Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents find such conversations stressful. By comparison, a smaller majority (55%) of conservative and moderate Democrats feel this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-310-wide\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-14202\" href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2021\/11\/23\/republicans-and-democrats-alike-say-its-stressful-to-talk-politics-with-people-who-disagree\/ft_2021-11-23_stressfulconversations_03-png\/\"><img data-dominant-color=\"ecebeb\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #ecebeb;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/ft_2021.11.23_stressfulconversations_03.png?resize=480,607 480w, https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/ft_2021.11.23_stressfulconversations_03.png?resize=620,784 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 480px, (max-width: 782px) 782px, 640px\" height=\"392\" width=\"310\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/ft_2021.11.23_stressfulconversations_03.png?w=310\" alt=\"A chart showing that people who see commonality outside of politics are less likely to say talking to people they disagree with politically is \u2018stressful\u2019\" class=\"wp-image-14202 not-transparent\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Americans who say people who supported a different candidate than they did in the 2020 presidential election still probably share their other values and goals are less likely to find conversations with those they politically disagree with stressful and frustrating than those who do not see these commonalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About two-thirds of Americans (65%) who say people who supported a different candidate in 2020 probably <em>don\u2019t<\/em> share their other values say they find talking politics with those who disagree with them to be stressful. A smaller share \u2013 about half (53%) \u2013 of those who say political opponents largely <em>do<\/em> share their other values say this. This pattern holds for both Republicans and Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Note: Here are <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/11\/PP_2021.11.09_political-typology_TOPLINE.pdf\">the questions used<\/a> for the report, along with responses, and <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/stressful-convos-Methodology.pdf\">its methodology<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The share of Americans who say having political conversations with those they disagree with is \u201cstressful and frustrating\u201d has increased.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":584,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2021-11-29T20:30:00Z","apple_news_api_id":"8adba21f-3ec0-4d11-9821-4f1cc43afb45","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2021-11-29T20:30:00Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AituiHz7ATRGYIU8cxDr7RQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[],"bylines":[718],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[520],"workflow-status":[],"collection":[],"class_list":["post-8712","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","bylines-ted-van-green","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-politics"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":496,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2021\/11\/23\/republicans-and-democrats-alike-say-its-stressful-to-talk-politics-with-people-who-disagree\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":14213,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/FT_21.11.18_StressfulConversations_A1_topic.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/FT_21.11.18_StressfulConversations_A1_topic.png?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":14208,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/FT_21.11.18_StressfulConversations_crop.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/FT_21.11.18_StressfulConversations_crop.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":true},"A3":{"id":14208,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/FT_21.11.18_StressfulConversations_crop.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/FT_21.11.18_StressfulConversations_crop.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":true},"A4":{"id":14208,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/FT_21.11.18_StressfulConversations_crop.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/FT_21.11.18_StressfulConversations_crop.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":true},"XL":{"id":14213,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/FT_21.11.18_StressfulConversations_A1_topic.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/FT_21.11.18_StressfulConversations_A1_topic.png?w=720&h=405&crop=1","width":720,"height":405,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":14211,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/FT_21.11.18_StressfulConversations_featured_new.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/11\/FT_21.11.18_StressfulConversations_featured_new.png?w=1200&h=628&crop=1","width":1200,"height":628,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"prc_checklist":{},"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Talking politics with people who disagree is stressful for Democrats, Republicans","description":"The share of Americans who say having political conversations with those they disagree with is \u201cstressful and frustrating\u201d has increased.","og_title":"Republicans and Democrats alike say it\u2019s stressful to talk politics with people who disagree","og_description":"The share of Americans who say having political conversations with those they disagree with is \u201cstressful and frustrating\u201d has increased.","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":{"research-teams":10818968},"custom_schema":[],"twitter_title":"Republicans and Democrats alike say it\u2019s stressful to talk politics with people who disagree","twitter_description":"The share of Americans who say having political conversations with those they disagree with is \u201cstressful and frustrating\u201d has increased.","og_image":14211,"twitter_image":403321,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[{"key":"_hhsf0mrmq","termId":718}],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/8712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/short-read"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/584"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/8712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28544,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/8712\/revisions\/28544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8712"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=8712"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=8712"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=8712"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=8712"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=8712"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=8712"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=8712"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=8712"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=8712"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=8712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}