America has always been divided over politics, but now it’s personal.
A new study from UC Irvine psychologists reveals a fracturing nation as political divides shatter friendships, tear apart families and fuel a deepening hostility between everyday Americans.
The research, published in PNAS Nexus, was conducted by Department of Psychology Ph.D. candidate Mertcan Güngör and Professor Peter Ditto and introduces the term “political breakup” for the loss of a relationship with a friend, family member, romantic partner or coworker due to political differences.
Their findings, drawn from four separate datasets totaling nearly 3,800 participants, paint a picture of a country whose political divisions are spilling out of Washington and into everyday life.
“More than a third of Americans reported that they have lost relationships with friends, family, romantic partners and coworkers over political differences,” the authors write. “Those who lost relationships were more hostile toward their political opponents, voters more so than party elites.”
In their most recent national survey, conducted in April 2025 with YouGov, the researchers found that 37 percent of Americans reported having experienced a political breakup at some point in their lives. Of those, 62 percent had a falling-out with a friend, 40 percent with a family member, 29 percent with a coworker and 10 percent with a romantic partner. More than half reported losing more than one type of relationship.
Friends appear to be the most vulnerable, Güngör and Ditto report.
“Friendships may be uniquely vulnerable to political breakups as they are close enough to allow for political differences to surface while lacking the commitments and constraints that hold romantic and family relationships together,” Güngör says. “It’s easier to cut a friend or acquaintance whose politics annoy you out of your life than it is your boyfriend or uncle.”
The trend appears to be accelerating.
A comparison of breakups stemming from the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections found that the 2024 election surpassed the 2016 rate in roughly half the time. Participants’ own recollections showed a sharp uptick in breakups beginning in 2016, a shift the researchers say is “hard to explain by recency bias alone.”
In a follow-up analysis of American National Election Studies data, panel participants were significantly more likely to report that political differences had hurt their family relationships in 2024 than they had been in 2020.
The study also reveals a striking difference between Democrats and Republicans.
In the April 2025 survey, 47 percent of Democrats reported having experienced a political breakup, compared to just 29 percent of Republicans. Independents fell in between, at 39 percent.
It’s not just that Democrats report more breakups. They’re also the ones more likely to be doing the breaking up.
Among those who reported a political split, 66 percent of Democrats said they were the ones who ended the relationship, compared to only 27 percent of Republicans.
The study also finds that people who reported breakups were significantly more hostile toward political opponents than their fellow partisans, even after accounting for the strength of their political identity.
“They felt colder toward the opposing presidential candidate, and even colder still toward ordinary voters on the other side of the aisle,” Güngör and Ditto note. “Those who reported breakups also thought their opponents held more extreme views.”
Political breakups are a reflection of growing affective polarization in the United States, Güngör says, pointing out that many researchers have devoted their efforts to understanding and curbing this trend.
“We try to find ways to bridge political divides while Americans keep burning bridges,” he says, adding that political breakups can also contribute to polarization. “If we cannot hear opposing perspectives of real people, we’ll rely on caricatures drawn by partisan media, and become more trapped in our ideological bubbles.”
In a society already grappling with what the U.S. Surgeon General has called an “epidemic of loneliness,” the additional severing of social ties carries real consequences, Güngör and Ditto emphasize. “Polarization can sever existing ties and contribute to loneliness, potentially worsening people’s physical and mental health.”
Their study’s conclusion is direct: “political breakups represent a threat to the well-being of a democracy – and likely to the well-being of its citizens.”
