There aren't actually that many gay Democrats or rich Republicans

Americans have wildly wrong perceptions of the membership of the Democratic and Republican Parties, dealing more in stereotypes than reality.

For example, Americans estimate that about four in 10 Republican voters make at least $250,000 per year. It's actually more like two in 100. On the other side of the aisle, Americans guess that almost a third of Democrats are in the LGBT community. In real life, it's only 6 percent.

African-Americans, union members, and atheists are likewise much less represented in the Democratic Party than is commonly perceived, while the GOP is younger, less evangelical, and less Southern than many guess.

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This data comes from a new study by Douglas J. Ahler and Gaurav Sood, researchers from UC-Berkeley and Stanford University, respectively. Ahler and Sood found the misperception is highest when partisans are imagining the other party, but both groups make significant mistakes about their own side, too. And the more news-savvy a person is, the more likely they are to conceptualize each party in these inaccurate stereotypes.