MA Is The Most Politically Intolerant State In U.S., Study Says

Massachusetts tops most every list we come across: schools, hospitals, sports. We're the Hub, baby, and we're No. 1 in everything.

Including, it appears, being incredibly intolerant of one another's differing political opinions.

A new study by PredictWise published this week in The Atlantic called Suffolk County the most partisan prejudiced county in all of America, with the other counties in Massachusetts right behind it.

Middlesex, Norfolk, Dukes, Nantucket, Hampshire, Berkshire, Franklin counties all joined Suffolk County in the 100th percentile of political intolerance. Barnstable, Essex, Bristol, Plymouth and Hampden counties were in the 99th percentile.

In Suffolk County, Democrats appear considerably more prejudiced against Republicans than the other way around, the study said. But in every other county, the accusatory eyes are just as sharp on both sides of the aisle.

Suffolk County was at such an extreme that The Atlantic took time note a couple of things about it.

"In this part of the country, nine out of every 10 couples appear to share the same partisan leaning, according to the voter-file data. Eight out of every 10 neighborhoods are politically homogeneous," The Atlantic said. "This means that people in Boston may have fewer 'cross-cutting relationships,' as researchers put it. It is a very urban county with a relatively high education level. All these things tend to correlate with partisan prejudice."

Partisan prejudice is what researchers call "affective polarization," The Atlantic said. And according to the study, it's generally whiter, more highly educated, more urban, older and more partisan people who tend to be the most politically prejudiced.

PredictWise gets deep into the study's methodology here.

Read the full story here.