Balance Theorem and the political polarization in the US
Few Trump or Biden supporters have close friends who back the opposing candidate
In this article, the author focuses on political polarization in the USA. Supporters of Donald Trump and Joe Biden are divided not just in their views of the two presidential candidates and in their broader political beliefs and values. They are also largely divided in their personal relationships: Roughly two-fifth registered voters in both sides say that they do not have a single close friend who supports the other major party candidate, and fewer than 25 % say they have more than a few friends who do, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in July and August.
Most voters instead report having a lot of friends who share their political preferences. Around three-fifths of Trump supporters (59%) say they have a lot of friends who share their support for the president’s reelection bid, while a slightly smaller share of Biden supporters (48%) say a lot of their close friends also will back Biden in the election this fall. Nearly nine-tenths supporters of both Trump (89%) and Biden (87%) say they have at least some close friends who support presidential candidate
Upon reading this article, I immediately thought about our discussions of the balance theorem earlier this month. According to the theorem, If a labeled complete graph is balanced, then either all pairs of nodes are friends, or else the nodes can be divided into two groups, X and Y, such that every pair of nodes in X like each other, every pair of nodes in Y like each other, and everyone in X is the enemy of everyone in Y. In this case, assuming this graph of friends nodes is balanced(which is a safe assumption giving the current situation), then what we are seeing in nowadays society is a real-world application of this theory. People become more inclined to have friends with the ones that shared common political beliefs, and they will hardly have any interactions with people who hold a different belief. In the long run, it’s not the case that they don’t become friends with people from different political groups, but rather they would become enemies with each other.
More drastic political polarization is becoming an inevitable trend for the future. However, I truly hope that we could do something to prevent that from happening.
Article: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/18/few-trump-or-biden-supporters-have-close-friends-who-back-the-opposing-candidate/