A model of this story seems in CNN’s What Issues e-newsletter. To get it in your inbox, join free here.
CNN
—
It’s jarring to listen to American children discuss politics and see the nation’s usually offended political debate filtered by way of younger folks.
When a toddler is requested for one phrase to explain former President Donald Trump and comes up with “pure evil,” it suggests a degree of division which may shock the common American.
Researchers discovered that Democrat-supporting children drove polarization in a brand new research for CNN, and the kids have been extra prone to say they wouldn’t be associates with somebody who helps Trump. Children in crimson states, then again, have been extra prone to repeat misinformation.
The findings are the results of greater than 40 hours of interviews commissioned by CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” to speak politics with 80 elementary schoolers in Arizona, a 2024 battleground state; New Jersey, a blue state; and Texas, a crimson state.
With their mother and father’ OK, researchers obtained the children’ unfiltered ideas in regards to the presidential candidates and the election.
CNN shouldn’t be figuring out the scholars or the faculties visited, and this isn’t a consultant public opinion ballot, however moderately a set of interviews designed to gauge polarization in kids.
For this mission, Asheley Landrum, an assistant professor, little one improvement knowledgeable and media psychologist at Arizona State College, labored with Stanford College political science professor Shanto Iyengar, who has already studied polarization in American teens. Landrum requested the elementary schoolers a collection of questions, utilizing pictures and visible prompts, to know how the kids really feel in regards to the political system.
The questions in regards to the presidential candidates included prompts asking which one would maintain them safer, which is extra trustworthy and which is extra prone to do unhealthy issues.
The interviews have been first carried out within the spring, when President Joe Biden was operating for reelection and the children have been in fourth grade. A lot of the similar kids took half in follow-up interviews within the fall in New Jersey and Texas, after Vice President Kamala Harris had stepped in to be the Democratic nominee and the children had began fifth grade.
A lot of the kids within the fall interviews, practically two-thirds, supported Harris. There was a fair break up in Texas, a significant enchancment for Democrats within the crimson state in contrast with when Biden was within the race. Nationwide polls of possible voters counsel a much tighter race for the White House and a lead for Trump in Texas.
What children consider Trump and Harris
In September, in line with an evaluation ready by Landrum, when children have been requested how a lot they preferred Harris or Trump on a five-point scale, the Democrat-leaning and blue-state children have been extra prone to say they actually preferred Harris and actually disliked Trump. Republican-leaning and red-state children preferred Trump however have been impartial and even constructive about Harris.
When Landrum requested for one phrase to explain a candidate, the outcomes for Trump ranged from constructive – equivalent to from one child in Might: “Go America!” – to extraordinarily unfavourable. There have been criticisms of Harris too. “Liar” was one little one’s one phrase to explain her.
Again in Might, “three Biden-leaning children spontaneously introduced up Hitler when speaking about Donald Trump,” in line with Landrum’s evaluation.
In Might, when the race was between Biden and Trump, children have been requested to pick an emoji that corresponded with their emotions a couple of candidate. Solely 1 / 4 of the Trump-leaning children chosen an emoji signifying that Biden makes them really feel nervous or anxious, however greater than half of the Biden-leaning children chosen that emoji when requested about Trump. That imbalance grew when interviews have been repeated in September and the children have been requested about Trump and Harris.
Iyengar was shocked by this total discovering of the research.
“Amongst adults, the same old result’s that Republicans are the extra hostile towards Democrats than vice versa,” he stated. “It suggests one thing in regards to the solid of characters on this race, i.e., Kamala Harris is comparatively unknown and subsequently folks shouldn’t have … a number of excessive views, both constructive or unfavourable, in the direction of her.”
Trump, then again, “is a longtime set off,” Iyengar stated, and blue-state children “have assimilated what their mother and father are telling them, they usually’re fairly hostile to him.”
There have been additionally many constructive responses, such because the lady who chosen the completely satisfied emoji for Biden as a result of the president helps girls’s rights and stated, “And I’m a girl.”
Trump-leaning children acknowledged the previous president’s shortcomings with some fascinating justifications. One boy argued that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have been each slave homeowners, “a very unhealthy factor, however they nonetheless had two phrases.”
“So I believe, though Trump has performed unhealthy stuff, he nonetheless deserves to run for president,” the boy stated.
That very same boy, in September, additionally expressed the problem of selecting between Harris and Trump when, offered with photographs of the 2 candidates, he was requested which is extra prone to do unhealthy issues.
“Convicted felon in opposition to a liar,” he stated. “Who do I choose?” He finally determined that Trump, the convicted felon, is extra prone to do unhealthy issues nevertheless it’s OK for a felon to be president.
Does it matter that Kamala Harris could be the primary feminine president?
Even a majority of youngsters who assist Trump agreed Harris could be a “type of” good president. The red-state children have been extra supportive of Harris in September than they have been of Biden in Might.
Most youngsters – about two-thirds, together with a majority within the crimson state – stated it will be a great factor to have a girl as president, though a number of anxious that different folks may not assist a girl.
There was just one child, a woman in Texas, who stated she didn’t suppose a girl must be president. “Women are a little bit bit dramatic typically,” she stated in response to a query about which candidate is extra egocentric, and in addition famous that “solely boys have been president earlier than, and that they might be extra stronger.” However that was an outlier response.
Most youngsters within the research, greater than 80% total, in each the crimson and blue states stated the nation is prepared for its president to be a girl of shade.
“It will be good for us to have a Black girl as president for the primary time in historical past, however my vote’s sort of nonetheless on Trump,” stated one lady.
Being associates with somebody who helps Trump or Harris
In each Might and September, Landrum confirmed children footage of two homes, one with a Trump signal and one with a Biden or Harris signal, and requested in the event that they or their mother and father could be comfy visiting. Most, Landrum notes, have been open to visiting the home related to both political occasion. However she provides {that a} larger share of Democrat-leaning children – a 3rd of them in September – have been unwilling to go to the properties of kids whose households assist Trump. Few of the Trump-leaning children stated they might be unwilling to go to a Democrat-backing home.
One child in Might whose household helps Biden stated he imagined there could be an argument if all of them visited a Trump home. “Perhaps like a meals combat or one thing,” he guessed.
One other boy went in a distinct course with meals analogies, arguing that individuals who like pizza can hang around with individuals who like burgers. “You may nonetheless be associates.”
A woman got here to the identical conclusion, however with a distinct comparability: “I like Taylor Swift, they usually like Olivia Rodrigo, however we’re nonetheless associates,” she stated.
In September, Landrum requested if Swift’s endorsement of Harris would have an effect on the election, and practically all the New Jersey children stated it will, in contrast with a little bit greater than half of the Texas children.
“The Swifties will observe her lead,” stated one boy.
However when she broke the responses down by gender, Landrum discovered that greater than 90% of the male members thought Swift would impression the election in contrast with lower than two-thirds of females.
Questions on Biden’s age and health finally drove him from the presidential race. Within the Might interviews, most youngsters didn’t particularly cite age as a motive to oppose both candidate. A couple of third talked about age in different contexts, and most of those urged that being “outdated” was a weak point.
A boy in Texas was satisfied Biden had dementia.
“He may not say he does, however he’s forgetting a number of stuff,” the boy stated in Might.
Trump-leaning members didn’t see his authorized points as causes to not assist him. The vast majority of those that introduced up Trump’s legal problems have been from the blue state, though the Might interviews have been carried out shortly after his conviction in a New York courtroom of falsifying enterprise data. Interviews in Arizona and Texas have been carried out earlier.
“I wouldn’t like somebody who like dedicated crimes to be my president. I wouldn’t really feel that secure,” stated a woman in New Jersey.
A bigger portion, greater than half, didn’t appear to know why Trump confronted authorized points, both within the New York case or within the different three instances the place he’s accused of making an attempt to overthrow the 2020 election and mishandling categorised paperwork.
A number of kids repeated falsehoods in regards to the candidates, and most of them have been geared toward Trump, in line with Landrum, though she discovered that extra of the children within the crimson state stated one thing that may very well be considered as misinformation. In September, she requested the children in a follow-up query the place they’d heard a selected declare, and it regularly got here from their mother and father.
One constructive piece of misinformation geared at Trump is that he provides a lot of his wealth to the US army, one thing that isn’t true.
A blue-state child was pissed off that Trump has supported individuals who unfold misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines, together with that they may make steel stick with an individual’s physique, which is fake. And there’s no proof that Trump supported anybody who made that declare.
One other lady stated she had heard of Harris that “some folks say that she believes in one other God.” Harris is Baptist, and her husband is Jewish.
The researchers discovered that for each blue-state and red-state children, their mother and father/household and TV information have been high info sources, however red-states children additionally relied closely on YouTube and TikTok.
Extra of the red-state children had smartphones, whereas extra of the blue-state children had tablets.
Misinformation can come from wherever, as one child confirmed when he described the presidential debate between Trump and Harris.
“In all probability the million-dollar factor Trump stated was, ‘The unlawful immigrants are coming to eat our pets,’” he stated, repeating a false assertion that Trump made about Haitian immigrants.
Learn the complete abstract of this mission, “Children on Politics,” from its authors: