There’s something strange about how Americans see the economy these days – or, at least, how they’re describing it to pollsters.
For one thing, there’s a stark partisan divide in responses to even factual economic questions. Take an April CBS News/YouGov poll that found Democrats were not only 41 percentage points likelier than Republicans to say that the condition of the national economy was good overall but also 29 points likelier than Republicans to correctly say that the number of jobs in the US had risen over the past year. …
But although the results are obviously influenced by partisanship, it’s less clear what precise form that influence is taking. In one reading, the divides are largely an example of partisan cheerleading – respondents using polls as a convenient opportunity to tout their partisan allegiances, rather than a faithful recounting of what they believe to be the truth. In another reading, they’re a sign that partisan thinking, fueled by polarization and reinforced by partisan divides in news consumption, has fully overtaken the way many Americans perceive their own reality.
That ambiguity can make it difficult to figure out the extent to which people mean what they tell pollsters – a challenge that has key implications for understanding public opinion not only on the economy, but also on everything from vaccine refusal to a susceptibility to political misinformation, such as the false belief that the 2020 election was stolen. CONTINUED
Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN
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