Turns out there’s a particular group of gals more willing to block or “unfriend” people on social media due to their political beliefs — Democrats.
A survey conducted by PRRI found that only 13% of respondents fessed up to blocking, unfriending, or unfollowing “someone on social media because of what they posted about politics.” Given how nasty this two-year-long election season has been, 13% seems low.
Both Democrats and those identifying as moderates were more likely to eliminate someone from their political circles than Republicans.
Only 13% of the public say they blocked, unfriended, or stopped following someone on social media because of what they posted about politics. Again, sharp political divisions emerged in the tendency to remove people because of the political opinions they expressed.Nearly one-quarter (24%) of Democrats say they blocked, unfriended, or stopped following someone on social media after the election because of their political posts on social media. Fewer than one in ten Republicans (9%) and independents (9%) report eliminating people from their social media circle.Political liberals are also far more likely than conservatives to say they removed someone from their social media circle due to what they shared online (28% vs. 8%, respectively). Eleven percent of moderates say they blocked, unfollowed, or unfriended someone due to what they posted online.
When those groups are broken down further, Democratic women are most likely to excommunicate someone for their political beliefs.
There is also a substantial gender gap. Women are twice as likely as men to report removing people from their online social circle because of the political views they expressed online (18% vs. 9%, respectively). Notably, the gender gap also differs significantly across political affiliation. Three in ten (30%) Democratic women say they removed an individual from their online social network because of a political opinion they expressed, while only 14% of Democratic men reported doing this. Republican men and women are about equally as likely to say they blocked, unfollowed, or unfriended someone on social media because of political posts (10% vs. 8%, respectively).
Contrary to pop-culture depictions, Republican women are the least caddy of the groups surveyed.
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