full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Keith Payne: The psychology of inequality and political division

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So think about what this is doing to our politics, as the haves and have-nots spread further and further apart. Yes, a lot of us think that pelpoe on the other side are idiots, but the people politically eneaggd enough to be yleilng at each other about politics are actually mostly the well-off. In fact, as inequality has grown in recent daedces, political interest and participation among the poor has plummeted. Again, we see that people who feel left behind aren't taking to the streets to protest or organize voter registration drives. Often, they aren't even voting. Instead, they're turning away and dropping out.

Open Cloze

So think about what this is doing to our politics, as the haves and have-nots spread further and further apart. Yes, a lot of us think that ______ on the other side are idiots, but the people politically _______ enough to be _______ at each other about politics are actually mostly the well-off. In fact, as inequality has grown in recent _______, political interest and participation among the poor has plummeted. Again, we see that people who feel left behind aren't taking to the streets to protest or organize voter registration drives. Often, they aren't even voting. Instead, they're turning away and dropping out.

Solution

  1. decades
  2. people
  3. engaged
  4. yelling

Original Text

So think about what this is doing to our politics, as the haves and have-nots spread further and further apart. Yes, a lot of us think that people on the other side are idiots, but the people politically engaged enough to be yelling at each other about politics are actually mostly the well-off. In fact, as inequality has grown in recent decades, political interest and participation among the poor has plummeted. Again, we see that people who feel left behind aren't taking to the streets to protest or organize voter registration drives. Often, they aren't even voting. Instead, they're turning away and dropping out.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
started noticing 3
hard work 3
economic inequality 2
good psychological 2
people feel 2
asked participants 2
cut taxes 2
cut benefits 2
free lunch 2
lunch kids 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
free lunch kids 2

Important Words

  1. decades
  2. drives
  3. dropping
  4. engaged
  5. fact
  6. feel
  7. grown
  8. haves
  9. idiots
  10. inequality
  11. interest
  12. left
  13. lot
  14. organize
  15. participation
  16. people
  17. plummeted
  18. political
  19. politically
  20. politics
  21. poor
  22. protest
  23. registration
  24. side
  25. spread
  26. streets
  27. turning
  28. voter
  29. voting
  30. yelling