From Prius To Pickup: Identifying The Political Divide In America

Credit Courtesy Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler

What is your go-to coffee spot? What car do you drive? What is your favorite TV show? A new book examines how the answers to these and other simple questions could explain America’s growing political divide. 

Political scientists Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler join host Frank Stasio to talk about their new book 'Prius or Pickup?: How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America’s Great Divide.'

Political scientists Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler use surveys and research analysis to determine how Americans’ political perspectives have become enmeshed with their worldview and behavior. They argue that many Americans have reached the point at which being on the left or right is no longer an opinion but an identity.

Host Frank Stasio speaks with Hetherington, the Raymond Dawson professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Weiler, director of undergraduate studies and a professor of global studies at UNC-CH about their book  “Prius or Pickup?: How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America’s Great Divide” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/ 2018).

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