At the table there is no talk of politics. It is a rule of bon ton, which however does not struggle to be respected, because it seems that, in Italy, talking about politics in the family is not really on the agenda. It is not easy to find evidence of this assumption, but a very interesting example is found in Silvia’s post ” My son talks about politics “, from the site Parenti Crescono.
In March 2018, Silvia writes that “with some amazement, I discovered that my 14-year-old son had an idea, albeit a bit rough, of the program proposed by the major parties” and adds that “he was not reporting any conversations or opinions heard from us “, to conclude” if my son had voted the next day, he would have voted for someone that I would never have voted. Fortunately, not someone absolutely unpresentable according to my criteria, but certainly someone distant from my ideas “.
As usual, to get more certain information about the presence of politics around family desks, we have to resort to a study that the Pew Reserch Center conducted behind Thanksgiving Day of 2018, when American families gather around the stuffed turkey . What were the results? According to the Pew survey conducted from 7 to 13 November 2018, while Americans were preparing for Thanksgiving, most adults (59%) replied that their family agrees in talking about politics, while 40 % admitted trying to avoid the topic.
The most interesting aspect, however, is this: the desire of families to face political speeches is linked to the level of concordance of the various opinions. Overall, the majority of Americans say they share at least some political position with the family: 64% of respondents say that most or all members of their family share their political views – but relatively few people, 22 % of those interviewed say that “almost everyone” in their family thinks like them. Furthermore, about a third say that “few” family members (26%) or “almost none” (9%) are of their own political opinion.
It is important to point out that in this survey, respondents were asked for information on the occasions when they meet with family members other than those with whom they live. The perception of Americans about how many family members share their political views – and how comfortable families are in discussing politics – has changed little since what Pew noted in December 2016 , shortly after the presidential election.
As then, the partial differences on this issue are minimal: in November 2018, two thirds (67%) of Republicans – and their sympathizers – and 63% of Democrats – and their sympathizers – declare that most or almost everyone in their family shares their political views. And 61% of Republicans and 58% of Democrats say that their family agrees on talking about politics.
Among those who say that almost everyone in their family shares their political views (22%), an overwhelming share (82%) says that politics is talked about without problems. But things change when there are dissensions. In fact in these cases we talk less.
So, in short, politics is a hot topic, and is it better to glaze when you think differently, to avoid perhaps incurable quarrels? There will be a reason.
Indeed, it seems that when we clash with political opinions different from ours, a specific neural circuit would function in the brain, responsible for categorizing people as allies or enemies. We read it in a study published in Cognition ” Constituents of political cognition: Race, party politics, and the alliance detection system “. But the really interesting thing we read in the study is this “When a person expresses opinions that reflect a different political vision from ours, our mind automatically and spontaneously assigns it to a rival coalition. For our brain, political affiliation is more like being part of a gang or a restricted clique rather than a dispassionate philosophical stance. ” Nothing personal
