How 3D Glasses Can Help Us See Beyond Political Polarization

In a September New York Times/Siena poll, Americans named political polarization as the nation’s most serious problem, second only to the economy. With the recent, record-setting federal government shutdown and ongoing congressional gridlock, that number has surely climbed.

The causes of this division are familiar: the rise of partisan media, social media algorithms that funnel us into “echo chambers,” and the decline of civic organizations that once brought diverse people together.

To understand this conundrum, let’s look more closely at the word we use to define it: “polarization,” a scientific metaphor. Metaphors are powerful cognitive tools. They simplify complexity, offer new perspectives, and hint at potential solutions.

What can we learn when we look more deeply at the “polarization” metaphor? In physics, the polarization of light waves is fundamental. Light waves from the sun oscillate in every direction. When sunlight strikes a horizontal surface like water or a road, the reflected light that causes glare is horizontally polarized. The polarized lens in your sunglasses—a vertically polarized lens—blocks those horizontal waves, much like a picket fence blocks any object not aligned with its slats. The glare is eliminated, but you can still see the rest of the visual field.

This scientific metaphor aptly describes our political divide. Media editors and social media algorithms act as polarization filters, allowing only certain types of information to pass. A progressive newscast selectively reinforces a progressive perspective. Social media algorithms keep feeding similar news items to keep the user engaged—because engagement is monetized in our attention economy. The bottom line is that most information we receive is delivered through a filter designed to reinforce our existing orientation.

Filtered perspectives inevitably lead to political gridlock. When one political party only allows one type of policy through its filter and the opposition allows only the opposite, Congress deadlocks, leading to shutdowns and policy paralysis. It’s the same situation that can make a family discussion around the Thanksgiving table fraught with peril.

Fortunately, physics also suggests a way out.

Consider the polarized lenses used for 3D movies. (I’m referring to passive polarization technology.) With these glasses, one lens is polarized horizontally, and one lens is polarized vertically. A 3D film is shot with two slightly offset cameras, mimicking our eyes. The image from one camera is projected for the vertically polarized lens, and the image from the other camera is projected for the horizontally polarized lens. These two slightly offset images are then merged and integrated by the viewer’s brain, creating a single, surprising 3D image from a flat 2D screen.

This mechanism offers the key insight for our political dilemma: The secret to overcoming polarization is the simultaneous incorporation and integration of two different views. If our brain can merge two offset visual inputs, why can’t it also handle two offset political inputs?

To gain a 3D view of the political and social landscape that has some depth and balance, we must actively seek news and opinions from two diverse sources—two distinct filters. Instead of spending 30 minutes reading just one partisan news website, look at both MSNBC and Fox News, spending 15 minutes on each one.

The apparent mismatch of information will be jarring at first, but your mind will begin to construct a fuller, stereoscopic vision of the world.

Here’s another suggestion: Find a second person. Seek out a respected individual whose views— political, social, or religious—differ significantly from your own. If you can build an ongoing relationship with them, your heart and mind will help you broaden and deepen your understanding. This type of cross-party relationship was once common among Members of Congress; it must become common again among citizens.

The filters of our media and social media are designed to simplify complexity into profitable, two-dimensional narratives. But as the simple metaphor of 3D glasses shows us, we can each individually take actions to integrate seemingly incompatible views. The result will be a 3D view of the world and our fellow citizens that has depth and breadth, allowing us to navigate our lives more effectively. As more of us see the big 3D picture, maybe we can help guide our leaders out of today’s flat 2D quagmire.