Daily Research News Online no. 3473

Circles of Agreement

October 13 2004

Most Americans tend to talk politics with people who agree with them, judging by results from the latest Harris Poll. The majority share the political loyalties of most of their families, friends and people at work, whether Republicans or Democrats.

In addition, Independents are much more likely than Republicans or Democrats to have friends and family members who are Independents.

Harris suggests that this is one of the reasons why so many people think opinion polls are biased against their candidates, parties or political positions: 'because most people tend to talk politics with people who share their views, it is easy for them to believe that their views are underreported in the polls'.

While most people believe that they make up their own minds about issues and candidates, political scientists say that they are in fact much more strongly influenced by the opinions of the people they live with, and talk to, than they realize.

Fully 69% of Republicans and 74% of Democrats said that their close family members mostly share their affiliations. Only 15% of Republicans and 12% of Democrats said that their close family members were mostly from the main opposing party.

The same is true of friends. Only 14% of Republicans and 10% of Democrats said that most of their friends were supporters of the other party, while majorities (55% of Republicans and 62% of Democrats) said that their friends were supporters of the same party as themselves.

The survey also found polarisation in the degree of interest in politics. At one extreme, many people talk politics less than once a month with family (31%), friends (35%), or people they work with (38%); and at the other there are some who talk politics almost every day with their family (18%), friends (12%), or people they work with (13%).

PARTY LOYALTIES OF FAMILY, FRIENDS AND PEOPLE AT WORK "Are most of the following Republican, Democrat or Independent?”
Base: All Adults*
	Analysis by Party Identification
	Republican	Democrat	Independent
	%	%	%
Close family (are mostly):
Republicans	69	12	23
Democrats	15	74	30
Independents	4	2	21
Not sure	12	11	26
Friends (are mostly):
Republicans	55	10	16
Democrats	14	62	25
Independents	3	3	21
Not sure	28	25	37
*People you work with (if working, are mostly):**
Republicans	40	15	21
Democrats	18	40	18
Independents	3	1	10
Not sure	39	44	51
*For 'People you work with', base is 'all adults who work'.

2,555 US citizens aged 18 and over were surveyed online by Harris Interactive(r) between September 20 and 26. Of the 2,555 1,632 are employed, 868 are Republican, 853 are Democrats and 595 are Independents. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

Web site are at www.harrisinteractive.com and www.harrispollonline.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.