According to a survey conducted by the Allenbach Institute for Opinion Research, Green party voters across all Bundestag party affiliations most frequently admit to being bothered by opinions that differ from their own. This was reported by the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (Friday edition).
When asked, “If you interact with someone who holds completely different opinions from your own: Does this often irritate you, or do you usually have no problem with it?”, 28 percent of Green voters stated that it irritates them. This figure was followed by AfD voters at 24 percent, Union voters at 19 percent, and SPD voters at 18 percent. The average for the general population was found to be 21 percent.
Furthermore, the survey results challenge the common assumption that social media users largely communicate only within their own echo chambers. The study suggests that “analog friend circles” are politically even more homogenous than digital ones.
Only about one-tenth of respondents who reported regularly meeting with friends and acquaintances stated that the general mood within that acquaintance circle favored a different party than the respondent preferred. In contrast, nearly double that proportion reported the same thing among those who regularly discuss politics in social networks.
