One Nation, Two Realities: Dueling Facts in American Democracy

by Morgan Marietta, David C. Barker

The deep divides that define politics in the United States are not restricted to policy or even cultural differences anymore. Americans no longer agree on basic questions of fact. Is climate change real? Does racism still determine who gets ahead? Is sexual orientation innate? Do immigration and free trade help or hurt the economy? Does gun control reduce violence? Are false convictions common?

Employing several years of original survey data and experiments, Marietta and Barker reach a number of enlightening and provocative dueling fact perceptions are not so much a product of hyper-partisanship or media propaganda as they are of simple value differences and deepening distrust of authorities. These duels foster social contempt, even in the workplace, and they warp the electorate. The educated -- on both the right and the left -- carry the biggest guns and are the quickest to draw. And finally, fact-checking and other proposed remedies don't seem to holster too many weapons; they can even add bullets to the chamber. Marietta and Barker's pessimistic conclusions will challenge idealistic reformers.

Genres: Politics, Psychology, Nonfiction

360 pages, Hardcover

Published April 15, 2019

Reviews

[Dillan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One Nation, Two Realities, is at its core a book about polarization. The authors put together a cogent and convincing argument that the “Dueling Fact Perceptions” common in modern society and politics (think dueling perceptions on climate change or racism) draw primarily - though not entirely - from value differences amongst Americans. They use survey evidence to make their conclusions and tie in major discussions on the nature of epistemology, education, polarization, and fact checking to get to the questions of what causes Dueling Fact Perceptions, what their consequences are, and what can be done about them. At the end, they conclude pessimistically that there really isn’t much that can be done, and that the problem will likely continue to get worse with major deleterious effects on society and our democracy.

As an academic book, it is dense but readable, and I never once felt truly lost going through their data and evidence. I will note that I am a bit skeptical of their final conclusion that there is nothing that can really be done (not that I think anything *will* be done anytime soon, but I think they understate the impact of the media environment on polarization, and how changes in it could affect Dueling Fact Perceptions). You also have to keep in mind the caveats natural to any study, particularly surveys. Overall, the book is well put together and enjoyable, and the student of political science would find it well placed on their bookshelf.

[Emil O. W. Kirkegaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to find a copy of but reports a bunch of original survey studies concerning fact checkers, values alignment vs. truth seeking, ideological biases, American news media and that kind of thing.