Cultural Fault Lines and Political Polarization

Abstract

Survey research reveals deep partisan divisions in the U.S. that extend beyond politics to include cultural tastes, lifestyle choices, and consumer preferences. We show how co-following on Twitter can be used to measure the extent to which these divisions are also evident in social media. We measure political alignment (location on the red-blue spectrum), relevance (overlap between cultural and political interests), and polarization (internal division) in music, movies, hobbies, sports, vehicles, food and drink, technology, universities, religions, and business. The results provide compelling evidence that "Tesla liberals"{ and "bird hunting conservatives" are stereotypes grounded in empirical reality.