A common external threat does not reliably unite polarized publics
Evidence
Moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt has become one of America’s leading sources for understanding political polarization. His 2012 bestseller, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, presciently described the intensifying polarization that was both a cause and an effect of the Trump presidency. In the end, however, even Haidt’s diagnosis proved too sanguine. In a popular TED Talk that accompanied the 2012 book, Haidt mused that a common threat might restore common ground in American politics. If Americans learned that a large asteroid was on course to strike earth within a few years, he speculated, they would surely throw aside their petty differences and come together to strategize, coordinate, and sacrifice so that humanity could survive. — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross, 125
Categorization
- SEED: The asteroid-passage sets up a natural empirical test of the ‘common enemy unites’ hypothesis — a device an essay on threat-based cohesion could reuse.
- XREF: connects to: Common external threats can reduce prejudice among ordinary outgroups — Walter G. Stephan, Oscar Ybarra, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Intergroup Threat Theory, 24; Perceived threat to in-group status evokes greater political conservatism. — Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson, On the Precipice of a…, 12; Each community’s insecurity targets the other as the threat (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Common external threats can reduce prejudice among ordinary outgroups
#contradicts(0.90) — Walter G. Stephan, Oscar Ybarra, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Intergroup Threat Theory, 24 - An ambiguous, unconcretized threat fragments rather than unites a crowd.
#expands(0.85) — John Drury and Evangelos Ntontis, A SOCIAL IDENTITY MODEL OF COLLECTIVE…, 27 - Each community’s insecurity targets the other as the threat
#complicates(0.80) - Intense polarization persists over a policy affecting only a small minority
#corroborates(0.80) - Threat can redirect hostility toward unrelated weaker outgroups
#qualifies(0.75) — Walter G. Stephan, Oscar Ybarra, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Intergroup Threat Theory, 20 - Perceived threat to in-group status evokes greater political conservatism.
#complicates(0.70) — Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson, On the Precipice of a…, 12