Just a few weeks after a divisive presidential election, millions of Americans are about to sit down with their families for Thanksgiving dinner.

For those of you concerned with potentially difficult, even clashing conversations across the table,

Judy Woodruff talks with social psychologist Keith Payne about identity and communication. It's part of her

ongoing series, America at a Crossroads. Keith Payne grew up in a small town in rural Kentucky,

with almost entirely white residents. His family wasn't outwardly political, but they lean

conservative, like most of their neighbors.

His own political beliefs began to shift when he went away to college, and that made his trips

home all the more difficult.

I couldn't stop getting into political arguments with my family members.

I come from a big family with a lot of diverse political views.

And on the one hand, I found these conversations and arguments so infuriating.

And on the other hand, I knew that they were good, decent people who I loved, who I was having

these intense arguments with. Payne is now a social psychologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

He's the author of a new book, Good, Reasonable People, the psychology behind America's Dangerous Divide,

which attempts to explain why Americans feel so split over politics and why

that can feel so personal.

We get a lot of our self-esteem and self-worth from the groups that we belong to, whether

it's partisan groups like Democrats and Republicans, whether it's racial and ethnic groups,

whether it's religious groups, community groups.

Belonging to those groups is really important to us.

And so much of what we do in life is based on reassuring ourselves

that we're good and reasonable people,

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