Summary: Research Manager Paul Oshinski writes about Perception Gaps — defined as the misconceptions we hold about each other’s beliefs.
After four years at More in Common, the most powerful insight I’ve gained is the “perception gap.” No other concept so profoundly challenges the assumptions we make about those whom we disagree with politically.
A perception gap refers to the difference between what we perceive a group thinks and what that other group actually thinks. The concept of perception gaps isn’t new — academics have been studying it for years. At More in Common, we began exploring them in 2019 to determine if our misperceptions are one of the drivers of our toxic polarization.
A typical way we determine perception gaps is by asking Republicans, Independents and Democrats what percentage of the other party agrees with a certain issue. For example, we would ask Republicans and Independents what percentage of Democrats agree with the following: “Law abiding citizens should have the right to bear firearms.” We then ask Democrats the same question to see what they actually think, and compare the difference.
Today, we use large surveys of Americans to probe perception gaps and have found that they appear frequently and across all sorts of issues, from immigration to American history.
These perception gaps matter because they represent a fundamental misunderstanding of our fellow Americans. When we misunderstand each other, we are less likely to engage, more likely to distrust, and more prone to seeing politics as a battle rather than a shared project. It makes it harder to build meaningful relationships with one another – and can create a cycle of escalation, where we overestimate the other side’s support for extreme actions and become more open to extreme responses ourselves.
Perception Gaps Across Major Issues
At More in Common, we’ve explored perception gaps across a variety of domains, from immigration to history to religion. Below, we highlight a few key examples of how these misperceptions play out, starting with how Americans view history.
Perception Gaps on History
In our 2022 “Defusing the History Wars” study, we uncovered some of the largest disparities in how we think other Americans view our history. For example, 93 percent of Republicans agree that Americans have a responsibility to learn from our past. Yet Democrats estimate that only 35 percent of Republicans hold this view. That’s a 58 percentage point gap between Democrats’ estimations and Republicans’ actual views.
Below are some of the other statements we tested during this project.]
Similarly, 92 percent of Democrats believe all students should learn how the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution advanced freedom and equality. But Republicans estimate that only 45 percent of Democrats think this way – underestimating support by 47 percentage points. These findings do more than show our misunderstandings. Rather, they reveal that on many issues, there may be more commonly held beliefs than we may think.
How We Misunderstand Religious Groups
Our recent “Promising Revelations” study highlights how perception gaps exist beyond political identities – and are prevalent among how we see faith groups. We explored this area because religious communities are often subject to deep misunderstandings. Our findings reveal significant gaps between how Americans perceive people of faith and what they actually believe. For example, while only 4 percent of Evangelicals in the U.S. say their political party is their most important identity, non-Evangelicals estimate that 41 percent would prioritize politics above all else. This striking disconnect underscores how these assumptions create misleading narratives and fuel division.
Misreading Priorities
Most recently, in our 2024 Priority Gap study, we examined how Americans perceive the top issues for each political party—not just where Republicans and Democrats stand on issues, but which issues they see as most important. Our findings reveal significant misperceptions. For example, while inflation was actually the top priority for both Democrats and Republicans, many Americans mistakenly believed that abortion and transgender policy were the leading concerns for Democrats and that immigration was the top issue for Republicans. This disconnect highlights how public perceptions often distort what truly matters to each party’s voters.
Why do Perception Gaps exist?
We know that ideological extremity likely plays a role in perception gaps. Our studies with perception gaps near-consistently find that the most politically extreme groups in our Hidden Tribes segmentation—Progressive Activists and Devoted Conservatives—have the largest perception gaps of the other side. These groups are consistently the least accurate in estimating the views and priorities of their political opponents, often exaggerating the extremity of the other side’s beliefs.
While causational links are difficult to prove, it is also likely that media, social media, and social circles play a role. For example, our research found that Americans who consume more partisan outlets tend to have wider perception gaps. In addition, those who follow the news “most of the time” are nearly three times more likely to have distorted perceptions than those who consume it less frequently.
The same is true for increased social media usage: in our research on perception gaps of faith groups, we found that those who frequently share political content on social media also have higher perception gaps. This may be amplified by the fact that social media isn’t representative of most Americans’ views. Researchers at New York University in a recent study note that “The people who post frequently on social media are often the most ideologically extreme...about 90 percent of the population's political opinions are being represented by less than 3 percent of tweets online...This renders moderate opinions effectively invisible on social media, leaving the most extreme perspectives most visible for users.”
Why do Perception Gaps Matter?
What’s so wrong about having misconceptions? At a fundamental level, these misunderstandings also make us think we have less in common – and, as a result, might make us less willing to enter into dialogue. If you assume that someone you disagree with holds extreme views, why even have the conversation?
These false assumptions don’t just push people apart; they also make it harder to recognize where our perspectives genuinely diverge. If we operate under false assumptions, we might spend our energy debating the wrong issues instead of addressing actual differences. And often, we reduce others to their political identity—even though, for most of us, politics is not our most important identity.
On top of that, humans have a deep desire to feel heard. And in a landscape filled with misperceptions, a majority (58 percent) feel that they do not have a voice in the political conversation —which may lead to frustration, withdrawal, or even disengagement from important civic and political conversations.
I catch myself doing it all the time—imagining what someone on the “other side” must think. I’ll read a headline, assume I know their perspective, and start constructing their response in my mind. But when I talk to real people, the conversation is almost always more nuanced, less polarized—a reminder that real understanding starts when we step out of these assumptions and into actual dialogue.
Perception gaps don’t have to define how we see each other. By fostering connections across differences, seeking out diverse perspectives, and practicing thoughtful communication, we can begin to close these gaps. Simply being mindful of how often we make snap judgments—and questioning whether they’re accurate—can help us see others more clearly. Before assuming what someone believes, it’s worth asking: How did I come to that assumption? Why do I think they believe what they do?
Shifting from judgment to curiosity—seeking to understand why someone holds a view, not just what they believe—opens the door to more meaningful conversations. It also challenges us to consider how we want to be understood and how we can offer that same generosity to others. Challenging perception gaps does not happen overnight, but it’s a step toward uncovering how much common ground we actually have.
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