Poll: 'Consistent liberals' most likely to unfriend you over politics

Poll: &#039;Consistent liberals&#039; most likely to unfriend you over politics

last updated 8 January 2015

That finding comes from a new poll from Pew Research, which revealed a number of differences in the way conservatives, liberals, and moderates use social media. Perhaps least surprising is the fact that those with more polarized political views — here labeled "consistent conservatives" and "consistent liberals" — are most likely to pay attention to politics on sites like Facebook and Twitter. They are also more likely to follow issue-based groups, pundits, and politicians than those with mixed views.

Where the results get more interesting, however, is in interactions with other users: Nearly half of "consistent conservatives" and one third of "consistent liberals" report that they agree with most or all of the political posts they see from Facebook friends, which suggests that the more conservative or liberal you are, the more you self-segregate politically. And finally, "consistent liberals" are indeed most likely to unfriend you over politics.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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