> We also found that Democrats and Republicans who held more inaccurate beliefs about the other side were even willing to subvert norms of democracy to hurt the

> We also found that Democrats and Republicans who held more inaccurate beliefs about the other side were even willing to subvert norms of democracy to hurt their political opponents. This is the scariest bit neither side seems to realize. You think the opposition is doing a terrible thing, so you have to do a bad thing for the greater good to counter it instead of doing the good thing. Now your opponents see you do the bad thing and imagine it as an even worse thing that they need to do bad things to counter, for the greater good. Who cares about breaking social norms when the opposition has already broken them even worse (or so you believe)? It's a positive feedback race to the bottom, with rational actions based on inaccurate beliefs every step of the way. Sure, I don't like my candidate, but they're the only way to stop the opposition's candidate, who has literal skeletons in their closet!