Undue Hate: A Behavioral Economic Analysis of Hostile Polarization in US Politics and Beyond

How to understand the mistakes we make about those on the other side of the political spectrumand how they drive the affective polarization that is tearing us apart.

Its well known that the political divide in the USparticularly between Democrats and Republicanshas grown to alarming levels in recent decades. Affective polarizationemotional polarization, or the hostility between the partieshas reached an unprecedented fever pitch. In Undue Hate, Daniel F. Stone tackles the biases undergirding affective polarization head-on. Stone explains why we often develop objectively false, and overly negative, beliefs about the other sidecausing us to dislike them more than we should.

Approaching affective polarization through the lens of behavioral economics, Undue Hate is unique in its use of simple mathematical concepts and models to illustrate how we misjudge those we disagree with, for both political and nonpolitical issues. Stone argues that while our biases may vary, just about all of us unwisely exacerbate conflict at timesmanaging to make ourselves worse off in the long run. Finally, the book offers both short- and long-term solutions for tempering our bias and limiting its negative consequencesand, just maybe, finding a way back to understanding one another before it is too late.
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