Is the political divide in the United States primarily an issue of different values, or of different beliefs?

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Short answer

Studies of U.S. polarisation show that disagreements about moral values and disputes about how to know what is true both matter. Research on moral psychology stresses value differences, while work on media ecosystems and “epistemic crisis” stresses clashing information processes. Most recent scholarship treats the two as intertwined rather than mutually exclusive [1][3][4][5].

Values versus epistemology

Moral-foundations research finds that progressives put heavier weight on care and fairness, whereas conservatives give additional weight to loyalty, authority and sanctity [3]. These distinct moral “taste buds” lead each side to prefer different policy goals and narratives, suggesting a value divide.

At the same time, partisan sorting into separate media diets, social networks and elite cues produces what some authors call an “epistemic divide” — citizens do not merely disagree about goals; they begin with incompatible factual premises and standards of evidence [1][4][5]. This is visible in divergent levels of trust in institutions, news outlets and even scientific authorities [4][5].

What the sources say

Book 1 (popular political science) argues that modern party coalitions have become “mega-identities.” Values matter, but information flows inside partisan communities reinforce those values and turn them into identity markers, making factual disagreement more likely [1].

Book 2 treats conflict as stemming from “competing visions” of human nature and social order. It sees values as the root, with epistemic battles emerging later as each camp defends its vision [2].

Haidt’s The Righteous Mind places primary weight on moral intuitions (values) while acknowledging that group-directed reasoning then shapes the kinds of facts that feel persuasive [3].

The Reuters Institute review finds only limited evidence for pure “echo chambers.” People still encounter opposing views, but asymmetric trust means they discount out-group sources; the authors frame this mainly as an epistemological issue [4].

The Wikle’s “Epistemic Crisis” page argues that collapsing information gate-keeping and strategic disinformation have produced a crisis in shared reality, moving the debate from “what should we do?” to “what is happening?” [5].

Points of agreement

Both camps recognise that values and knowledge acquisition interact; neither is wholly independent.
Identity politics intensifies both kinds of divide, making facts feel like attacks on group values [1][3][4].
Digital media accelerates self-selection into like-minded networks, fuelling value signalling and epistemic insulation [4][5].

Points of tension

Authors focused on moral psychology (e.g., Haidt) see values as the prime mover, with epistemic conflict as a by-product [3].
Media-systems scholars frame divergent information ecologies as the central problem, arguing that once factual baselines align, many value debates are negotiable [4][5].
Political-identity writers split the difference, claiming that identity-based partisanship simultaneously hardens value preferences and filters evidence [1].

Public discourse

Popular commentary often slides between the two frames: pundits blame “different truths” when debating Covid or elections (epistemology), or invoke “different moral universes” when discussing abortion or gun rights (values). Activists exploit both angles, portraying opponents as either morally deficient or factually deluded, which in turn deepens suspicion across camps [4][5].

Conclusion

The U.S. political divide cannot be reduced to only values or only epistemology. Moral-value differences give each side distinctive priorities, but information-system changes have enlarged those differences by eroding shared standards of evidence. Scholars disagree on which dimension is primary, yet most evidence indicates a feedback loop: value commitments guide where citizens look for facts, and partisan knowledge networks reinforce the moral world-views that citizens started with [1][3][4][5].

Sources

Question

Is the political divide in the United States primarily an issue of different values, or different epistemological beliefs.