Table of Contents

Preface

1. Introduction: Truth & Trust

Part I Concepts

2. What Smarter People Have Said About Facts: Philosophical & Psychological Foundations

3. Dueling Facts in Political Science

4. Dueling Facts in American Politics

Part II Causes

5. Your Facts or Mine? The Psychology of Fact Perceptions

6. The Psychology of Fact Perceptions II: Value Projection

7. Polarized Leaders Versus Polarized Values

8. A Theory of Intuitive Epistemology

9. The Roots of Certainty: Sacred Values and Sacred Facts

Part III Consequences

10. The Democratic Consequences of Dueling Facts

11. Disdain & Disengagement: The Social Consequences of Dueling Fact Perceptions

Part IV Correctives

12. Political Knowledge and Fractured Perceptions: Education is Not the Answer

13. Let Facts Be Submitted to a Candid World: Fact-Checking as a Potential Solution

14. Citizen Reponses to Fact-Checking

15. Symmetry, Asymmetry, and Durability

Part V Conclusion

16. Conclusion: Facts & Values, Knowledge & Democracy

References
Appendix

About the Author

Morgan Marietta is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he studies the psychology of politics and writes about the political consequences of belief. He is the author of three previous books, The Politics of Sacred Rhetoric: Absolutist Appeals and Political Influence (Baylor University Press, 2012), A Citizen's Guide to American Ideology: Conservatism and Liberalism in Contemporary
Politics (Routledge, 2011), and A Citizen's Guide to the Constitution and the Supreme Court: Constitutional Conflict in American Politics (Routledge, 2014).

David C. Barker is Professor of Government (American Politics) and Director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. Previously, he was Director of the Institute for Social Research and CALSPEAKS Opinion Research at California State University, Sacramento (2012-2017), and Associate Professor of Political Science at University of Pittsburgh. He has served as principal investigator on more than 60 externally funded research projects, and he
has published dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles in outlets such as the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, and many others. His previous books include Rushed to
Judgment: Talk Radio, Persuasion, and American Political Behavior (Columbia University Press, 2002) and Representing Red and Blue: How the Culture Wars Change the Way Citizens Speak and Politicians Listen (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Reviews

"Discussions of alternative facts, fake news, and post-truth abound in American society... Rarely do they produce a work as carefully thought out as that which Morgan Marietta and David C. Barker present in One Nation, Two Realities... The volume provides an impressive discussion on a crucial topic and one that digs deeply into many of the theoretical, philosophical, and empirical foundations of DFPs. The book clearly contributes to multiple domains of
research, including work on misperception, polarization, values, motivated reasoning, epistemology, and more. It is worth reading for students, researchers, and citizens concerned by divisions in American
society and can provide much needed depth to public discussions of an ever-increasing problem." -- Congress & the Presidency
"Academics, among others, reacted with incredulity and scorn when a close associate of President Trump proposed 'alternative facts' to explain varying interpretations of an apparently simple phenomenon. But Marietta and Barker show elegantly and persuasively that such a reaction was itself mistaken. Americans, and perhaps residents of other countries, live in a realm of deep divisions about objective reality. Problems go beyond misinformation and deeper than
ignorance; solutions are scarce; threats to democratic governance are severe. One Nation, Two Realities is a powerful, empirically-based, thoughtful analysis that all people who care about their
nation should ponder."
-- Jennifer L. Hochschild, Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government, Harvard University and author of Do Facts Matter?: Information and Misinformation in American Politics
"This is a superb piece of scholarship that blends politics, philosophy, and psychology. Barker and Marietta compellingly document how deep political polarization now runs in America. Importantly, they do not flinch from acknowledging how difficult it will be to bridge competing ideological visions of reality."

-- Philip E. Tetlock, Annenberg University Professor, University of Pennsylvania
"This is an important academic book about how the incendiary debate regarding fact and truth has distorted and inflamed American politics today. First, calling the problem one of Dueling Fact Perceptions captures it better than any term used to date, as the authors get to it by way of an excellent review of the historical debate, as well as current political science and public opinion research on the causes and consequences of partisan polarization. Second, it
shows that this problem is not just related to the ideological and other conflicts among party leaders, with or without President Donald Trump, but also to the clash of values that the public holds and
psychological processes such as motivated reasoning.
Third, it demonstrates that knowledge, education, and the unequivocal disclosure of falsehoods through fact-checking have become disconnected from democracy and are unable to diminish these severe perceptional biases. It leaves a sense of pessimism related to the lack of trust of leaders and institutions that provide the public with information. The authors do not say it, but what is needed is a new generation of leaders who can restore the trust that will
reconnect knowledge, education, and facts to democratic processes."

-- Robert Y. Shapiro, Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
"This rich and fascinating work examines the increasing prevalence of dueling fact perceptions among the American public. Couched in a wide-ranging discussion of epistemology, journalism, and social science, One Nation, Two Realities presents vital and sobering insights about the quality of American democracy."

-- Choice