This is In Conversation from Apple News.

I'm Shemit Sabasu.

Today, what's really driving political violence in America?

Earlier this month, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University.

The public response has amplified political divisions, leaving many people feeling anxious about the state of the country.

I think we've seen two tragedies.

So we saw the tragic assassination of Mr. Kirk, but that's been followed by a tragedy of blame and escalation and inflammation of tensions.

That's Sean Westwood.

He's an associate professor of government at Dartmouth College and director of the

polarization research lab, which studies polarization and democracy.

Sean has spent years surveying Americans and analyzing trends in public opinion.

His research shows there isn't broad support for political violence in the U.S.,

but there are deep, deep divisions and widespread misperceptions of the other side,

forces that can fuel fear,

mistrust, and in some rare cases, violence.

And he cautions that while there are a few voices stoking tensions, it's not what most Americans are doing or want to see more of.

Social media isn't reality.

Blue sky doesn't reflect the Democratic Party. Truth

Social doesn't reflect the Republican Party and X doesn't really reflect anyone. There's a real

danger in overlearning from the loud voices that want to share their opinion and trying to take

that and make sense of the mood in the country as a whole. In my conversation with Sean, we dig

into what the data actually shows about political

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