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Science Confirms the Election Could Ruin Your Facebook Friendships

"This is the most polarized electorate I've ever seen in my life, and I've been voting since 1968."
Image: Vector Stock/Wikimedia

It's the last few days of election season, but don't be surprised if you lose some "friends" for your polling posts. Research shows that in times of conflict, people are more likely to unfriend or unfollow their political adversaries as a political gesture on social media.

A recent study published in the Journal of Communication analyzed "political unfriending" on Facebook and found it to be an act of "political disengagement." The study itself focused on the Israeli-Gaza conflict of 2014, but may have indications for the political conflicts over the election cycle as well.

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Researchers Dr. Shira Dvir-Gvirsman from Tel Aviv University and Dr. Nicholas A. John from Hebrew University of Jerusalem surveyed 1,103 Jewish Israelis on Facebook up to ten days after the 2014 Israeli-Gaza conflict, and discovered that 16 percent of them unfriended someone due to their political commentary, while 19 percent considered doing so, but didn't act. Over the 50 days during which the Israeli-Gaza conflict lasted, "How to block people on Facebook?" was the tenth most common Google search term in Israel, according to Dvir-Gvirsman.

"The act of disconnecting can be seen as aimed at creating a 'clean' environment."

Of those who were unfriended, 73 percent had different political views, but also "weak ties" to the unfriender, meaning they didn't engage with each other regularly. The researchers said those most unlikely to unfriend are younger, have many Facebook friends, and are more active politically and on Facebook.

"The act of disconnecting can be seen as aimed at creating a 'clean' environment where there are no or fewer voices that you would rather not hear," Dvir-Gvirsman said. "This can create barriers to critical discourse."

In the US, this election has caused many to feel betrayal over a broken political system, according psychotherapist Paul Hokemeyer. "When human beings feel betrayed and helpless, they either internalize the anger or project it out onto the people around them," he told Courier-Journal.

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Clinically, this phenomenon is called "displaced anger." When people are helpless to change something, their anger manifests in self-destructive ways, said Hokemeyer, such as not voting, or voting for a third party candidate with no chance of winning. And, as we've all seen on Facebook, they lash out at other people. Unable to rid Trump from the election, for example, many resort to unfriending his supporters.

"I've lost probably a dozen real friends because of this election and that's both on the extreme left and the extreme right of my friends."

According to a poll from Monmouth University, 70 percent of Americans think the election is bringing out the worst in people and seven percent say they lost friends over it. The poll also found that 30 percent of voters think the harsh language used in politics is justified, while 65 percent say it's not. Within that frame, 47 percent of Trump supporters think the language justified, while only 17 percent of Clinton supporters do.

Nick Stump, a writer and musician from from Lexington, Kentucky, has publicly chimed in on Facebook about his anti-Trump views. His friends in response have unfriended him en masse and one even implied a death threat, he told Courier-Journal. "I've lost probably a dozen real friends because of this election and that's both on the extreme left and the extreme right of my friends," he said. "This is the most polarized electorate I've ever seen in my life, and I've been voting since 1968."

Harsh language, opinion overshare, and endless political commentary on social media have made this election disastrous both for the country at large, and individual relations. It remains to be seen whether deleted Facebook friends are re-added once this mess is over.

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