The Power of Us

The Power of Us

Share this post

The Power of Us
The Power of Us
Navigating political divides at Thanksgiving
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

Navigating political divides at Thanksgiving

Issue 58: Read a summary of an article we ran in the LA Times about how creating a shared sense of identity can make Thanksgiving dinners more pleasant

Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel's avatar
Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel
Nov 22, 2022
∙ Paid
2

Share this post

The Power of Us
The Power of Us
Navigating political divides at Thanksgiving
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
Share

This week, Jay and Dominic wrote a piece for the LA Times introducing research about how feeling a shared sense of identity with family who hold different political views than you can lead to a more peaceful Thanksgiving. At the end of the newsletter, we share advice on how to handle political tensions at the dinner table this holiday season. Here is a snippet of our piece:

A few years ago, researchers observed that people were spending 30 to 50 minutes less at Thanksgiving dinners if they traveled to precincts where the political voting patterns were different from their own precinct. This was true even after statistically controlling for distance and demographics.  

Using anonymized geolocation data from more than 10 million mobile phones, the researchers compared the movements of people who went to areas with similar voting patterns and those who visited areas with different voting patterns. They found that people were quicker to leave the dinner table when they were in areas favorab…

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to The Power of Us to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More