The figure below, featured in a paper by political scientist Larry Bartels, maps partisan identification — whether one identifies as a Democrat, an Independent, or a Republican, and how strongly — with opinions as to whether unemployment and inflation had gotten better or worse under Reagan’s presidency (1981-1988). It shows that partisan beliefs strongly predict people’s opinions about discernable facts.
Via Gin and Tacos.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 19
Nia — February 7, 2011
What's the truth?
Keeley — February 7, 2011
...What poorly designed graphs.
Sarah — February 7, 2011
Is it justmeor are those graphs really confusing? I can't tell who believed what.
Zula — February 7, 2011
Yeah, I'm not understanding these graphs at all. My initial reading is that most Republicans think unemployment and inflation got worse, which I'm guessing is not the case.
Ertugrul — February 7, 2011
Democrat or Republican, everybody would express themselves as "their understanding on the issue went much worse" after seeing these graphs...
Allison — February 7, 2011
I agree with the other commenters, I can't read these graphs. It looks like the Republican side is much more likely to say things got both worse and better.
SamLL — February 7, 2011
The lines are separators and the data is the whitespace between the lines. The labels pertain to the whitespace, not the lines.
Molly W. — February 7, 2011
This might sound odd, but try imagining those graphs turned 90 degrees clockwise ...
Beau Weston — February 7, 2011
From Wikipedia:
Under Reagan, the unemployment rate dropped by 1.6pp, from 7.1% in 1980 to 5.5% in 1988, but with peaks of around 9.5% in 1982 and 1983.
The inflation rate, 13.5% in 1980, fell to 4.1% in 1988, which was achieved by applying high interest rates by the Federal Reserve (peaked at 20% in June 1981).
Beau Weston — February 7, 2011
In other words, I think the correct answer is that unemployment got "somewhat better," and inflation got "much better."
Correct on unemployment: 20% of Democrats, and 30% of Republicans.
Correct on inflation: 5% of Democrats, and 48% of Republicans.
Estella — February 7, 2011
Like most studies of its nature, this one erases the existence of an entire group of possible respondants, and one I belong to: I'm neither a Democrat nor a Republican, nor an Independant in the sense of being about half-way in between the two. I'm to the left the Democrats. But I suppose my opinion doesn't count. (Which is unsurprising; in the US you can be any flavor of right-wing or centrist and you'll find someone in government who more or less represents your views. No one in "my" government - ie the government in which I am supposed to have a part, directly or indirectly - represents me.)
In any case, the real issues with Reagan's presidency have far less to do with the damage he caused while he was actually in power and far more to do with the damage his ideology has continued to cause in the years since (which is far greater).