Presenter : Keith Chen UCLA “ Politics Gets Personal : The Effect of Salient Partisan Differences on Thanksgiving Dinners ” Host

Research on growing American political polarization and antipathy often studies effects on public institutions and political processes. Less attention has been paid to civil institutions like close familial ties. Using smartphone-tracking data and national precinct electoral results, we show time spent at Thanksgiving dinner fell by 20-30 minutes within politically divided families following the divisive 2016 election. This effect survives extensive demographic and spatial controls, as well as comparisons with Thanksgiving 2015. The effect more than doubles in media markets with heavy political advertising, and appears asymmetric. Democratic voters traveled less in 2016, but conditional on travel political differences shortened Thanksgiving dinners more among Republican voters, especially where advertising was heavy. This suggests political polarization degrades close family ties, and political advertising magnifies this effect. One Sentence Summary: Cell-tracking shows that mixed-party families had shorter 2016 Thanksgivings, an effect exacerbated by political advertising.