By THE ALASKA STORY
May 7, 2026 – A new study from researchers at the University of California, Irvine suggests America’s political polarization is no longer confined to cable news panels and campaign rallies — it is now breaking apart friendships, straining families, and isolating millions of people in their daily lives.
The study, published this week in PNAS Nexus, examined what researchers call “political breakups,” defined as the loss of a relationship due to political disagreements. According to the authors, more than one-third of Americans have experienced such a rupture with a friend, family member, coworker, or romantic partner.
The research was conducted by Mertcan Güngör and Peter Ditto, who analyzed four separate datasets involving nearly 3,800 participants.
Their findings point to a country where political identity increasingly shapes personal relationships.
“More than a third of Americans reported that they have lost relationships with friends, family, romantic partners and coworkers over political differences,” the researchers wrote in their paper, titled “Political breakups: Interpersonal consequences of polarization.”
In a national YouGov survey conducted in April 2025, 37% of respondents said they had experienced at least one political breakup in their lifetime. Among those:
- 62% lost a friendship
- 40% lost a family relationship
- 29% lost a coworker relationship
- 10% lost a romantic relationship
More than half reported losing more than one type of relationship.
The researchers found friendships were the most vulnerable to political division.
“Friendships may be uniquely vulnerable to political breakups as they are close enough to allow for political differences to surface while lacking the commitments and constraints that hold romantic and family relationships together,” Güngör explained. “It’s easier to cut a friend or acquaintance whose politics annoy you out of your life than it is your boyfriend or uncle.”
The study suggests the trend accelerated dramatically after 2016.
Researchers compared breakups associated with the 2016 presidential election to those tied to the 2024 election cycle and found the 2024 rate surpassed the earlier wave in roughly half the time. Participants also reported a sharp increase in politically driven relationship losses beginning around 2016.
The researchers said the rise is too significant to dismiss as simple “recency bias.”
Data from the long-running American National Election Studies also showed Americans were significantly more likely to report damaged family relationships over politics in 2024 than they were in 2020.
The study found a notable partisan divide as well.
According to the April 2025 survey:
- 47% of Democrats reported experiencing a political breakup
- 39% of independents reported one
- 29% of Republicans reported one
Researchers also found Democrats were substantially more likely to initiate the split.
Among respondents who experienced a political breakup, 66% of Democrats said they were the one who ended the relationship, compared to 27% of Republicans.
The authors linked these relationship fractures to what social scientists call “affective polarization” — the growing tendency for Americans not only to disagree politically, but to actively dislike and distrust people on the opposing side.
Participants who reported political breakups expressed colder feelings toward political opponents, particularly ordinary voters rather than political elites. They were also more likely to believe their opponents held extreme views.
“If we cannot hear opposing perspectives of real people, we’ll rely on caricatures drawn by partisan media, and become more trapped in our ideological bubbles,” Güngör said.
The researchers warn that the social consequences may extend beyond politics.
At a time when the United States Surgeon General has already warned about an “epidemic of loneliness,” the loss of personal relationships over political disagreements could worsen mental and physical health outcomes.
Their conclusion was blunt: Political polarization is not just reshaping elections — it is reshaping American society itself.
“Political breakups represent a threat to the well-being of a democracy,” the researchers wrote, “and likely to the well-being of its citizens.”
One thought on “More than one-third of Americans have lost relationships over politics, study says”
This is the end result of the moral absolutism of wokeness. The moral grandstanding and virtue signaling of a self ordained morally superior group is accomplished through public displays. Wokeness is ruled by emotion and feelings, open debate is shouted down with those the woke are opposed to cast as the enemy as the unclean as the unlearned. Logic and reason are not to be followed in this struggle of good vs. evil, wokeness must be followed with any deviation from the moral authority of the self ordained must be treated as heresy with the sinner being cast out. While wokeness has infected the left, some on the right are falling prey to the airs of supposed superiority along with the desire to control others.