From the article: “ In closing, our study should be viewed as a small, but important, first step. The sources of political and ideological polarization have be

From the article: “ In closing, our study should be viewed as a small, but important, first step. The sources of political and ideological polarization have been widely investigated, but relatively little attention has been directed to the possibility that the causal mechanisms are characterized by irreversible tipping points. The lack of attention does not reflect the low importance of the problem. The historical lesson from climate research may be instructive. As with incremental global warming (28), the dynamics of reversibility cannot be revealed with observational data tracking changes over time in the level of polarization. Instead, climatologists have relied on increasingly sophisticated and empirically calibrated computational models to show how the self-reinforcing dynamics of global warming can be reversed through the reduction of carbon and methane emissions only up to a critical threshold, beyond which civilization as we know it may be doomed. We extend the concern with an environmental tipping point to the study of polarization. The need for empirical calibration in our model calls for increased investment in the study of irreversible phase change, while our findings call for urgency in mobilizing remediation efforts before it is too late.”