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Have you noticed an increase in political fighting? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago by Thespiralsong@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I travel a lot, and talk to a lot of different people. I've noticed that while people certainly do have differing opinions, it's not as extreme as what I see online. I'm starting to feel like all this hate and division is manufactured. Has anyone else noticed, that when you actually talk to real people things are far less divided than various media would have you believe?

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[–] bloop@eepy.express 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

@Thespiralsong @asklemmy look up "normal distribution" for details but.
The normal distribution of any opinion will naturally show that the largest number are BETWEEN extremes. As in, in the middle. So for the majority of people and the majority of issues people will find that half of their concerns are addressed by one party and the other half by the other party.
The most extreme views are just yelled the loudest.

[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago

But echo chambers and polarization can increase the standard deviation, bringing down the opinions in the middle. Now may topics might even be a bimodal distribution rather than a normal distribution.