Ask Republicans and Democrats whether crime is rising, how strong the economy is, or an approximation for the employment rate, and over 80% of the time you will receive entirely different answers. Even when inflation and unemployment remain unchanged, those in the Democratic party tend to rate the economy more favorably under Democratic administrators, with Republicans doing the same with their counterparts. Many facts and figures from political campaigns utilize cherry-picking and rose-colored frames to form a narrative that aligns more closely with one’s political party than with actual, published values (Lee et al.). These are few of many examples of belief polarization, where partisan identity reforms perceptions of reality.

With such blind certainty, the political state of the United States is increasingly fickle. Our nation is increasingly filled with arrogance and ignorance, as shown by modern-day policies that revoke the rights of many, which is the recipe for discrimination and violence. Confirmation bias, lack of critical thought, selective media exposure, and indoctrination of political beliefs into one’s identity makes our worldview increasingly small, and more likely to be seen as the ultimate truth (Flynn et al.). When we believe we possess immense knowledge with little certain proof, it’s easy to miss what we weren’t actively looking for, and easy to judge others for what we presume to be true. However, truth only stems from awareness, knowledge comes from understanding, and judgement develops from constant evaluation. This is the only way to step forward as a society, not backward.

No single realistic solution will completely eliminate factual polarization, but media literacy education and teaching people to evaluate evidence, manipulate images, and misleading headlines can improve resistance to misinformation. Encouraging lateral reading through investigating who wrote the information, who funds the source, and what other sources claim would be much more effective than just relying on a single site. Instead of correcting false claims directly and risk debilitating another’s ego, prebunking information and reading techniques expose people to common manipulation techniques before they encounter misinformation (“Publications”). Social media platform changes such as reducing the “echo chamber effect” by cutting down on algorithmic amplification of false content, adding context to independent fact-checkers, and slowing the spread of viral posts until evaluation can reduce the reach of misinformation (Marino et al.).

Most importantly, rebuilding institutional credibility is essential in creating a factual foundation. Then while people will always disagree about values and policies, we can fully agree on stand-alone facts, instead of engaging in conflict from factual disagreements (Lees and Cikara). After all, democracy functions best when citizens can at least begin from the same set of truth. 

Acknowledgement

The Institute for Youth in Policy wishes to acknowledge Irene Kang for editing this policy op-ed.

References

Lee, Nathan et al. “More Accurate, But No Less Polarized: Comparing the Factual Beliefs of Government Officials and the Public.” British Journal of Political Science 51.3 (2021): 1315–1322. Web. 

Lees, Jeffrey, and Mina Cikara. “Understanding and combating misperceived polarization.” Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences vol. 376,1822 (2021): 20200143. doi:10.1098/rstb.2020.0143

Flynn, D. J., et al. "The Nature and Origins of Misperceptions: Understanding False and Unsupported Beliefs About Politics." Political Psychology, vol. 38, pp. 127-150, https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12394. Accessed 14 Jul. 2026. 

Gariev, Vitaly. Two Businessmen Discussing a Project at a Table. September 22, 2025. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/two-businessmen-discussing-a-project-at-a-table-x5xdzVHKqJ8.

Marino, Maria, et al. “(Mis-)Perceptions, Information, and Political Polarization: A Survey and A Systematic Literature Review.” European Journal of Political Economy, vol. 85, Elsevier BV, June 2024, pp. 102578–78, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2024.102578. Accessed 13 July 2026.

“Publications – Brendan Nyhan.” Dartmouth.Edu, 2026, https://sites.dartmouth.edu/nyhan/publications/. Accessed 14 July 2026.