ABSTRACT
The other major belief-related meaning of polarization is extremism. In this chapter, we examine Cass Sunstein’s account of the mechanisms of belief polarization in groups of like-minded people and ask whether such polarization is necessarily irrational. We also consider and discard the contention of some political scientists that American polarization is “asymmetric,” that is, that one side is becoming extreme and the other isn’t. I close the chapter by giving an epistemological gloss to an idea in political commentary, that of the “Overton window,” and by developing my own account of “epistemic blowback.”
