A ten-slide series on the third move in the playbook: turn a claim into a team, so that questioning it feels like turning on your own people. This page has the studies, the transcripts, and the data behind every card, with dates, links, and what each one cannot tell you, plus a reading check you can try yourself.
The full text of every card, in order, with the card itself under each one. Select a card to open it full size.
Grouped by card. Each source has a summary of what it says, a scope line saying how far it reaches, and a link to the original.
Liberal and conservative college students read about a welfare plan that was either generous or harsh, and were told it had the backing of 95% of House Democrats and 10% of Republicans, or the reverse. Their support depended almost entirely on which party they were told backed it, not on what the plan did: on a 7-point scale, liberals rated it 5.46 when told Democrats backed it and 3.15 when told Democrats opposed it, and conservatives showed the mirror image. Asked what influenced them, they rated the details of the plan highest and their party lowest.
A preregistered replication, run in October 2019 with 954 adults online. Shown two unlabeled photos of the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations and asked which had more people, 6.6% of Trump voters and 3.0% of Clinton voters chose the photo with fewer people; 6.9% of Republicans and 3.6% of Democrats did. The original 2018 study found the same pattern at a larger size.
A reanalysis of 44 studies with about 71,000 respondents. Methods meant to strip out loyal answers, such as paying for correct ones, shrank measured party bias on facts by about 25% on average. The rest of the gap stayed. The effect was no larger among strong partisans or the more educated.
Mostly five-year-olds were randomly put in a red or a blue group by a coin and given a matching T-shirt, with no competition and no reason to prefer either color. They liked their own group’s children more, gave them more, and remembered more good things they did.
The president told the assembled leaders, “it’s the enemy from within and we have to handle it,” and in the same speech, “We’re under invasion from within, no different than a foreign enemy,” and “we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”
NPR reported that almost 800 generals, admirals, and senior enlisted leaders were ordered to attend on short notice. The president framed the deployments as fighting crime in very unsafe places.
Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index runs from minus 100 to plus 100. Republicans went from minus 72 in October 2024 to plus 24 in February 2025; Democrats went from plus 37 to minus 49. Gallup called it “a near-complete reversal.” Poll of 1,004 adults by phone, February 3 to 16, 2025.
A preregistered test with 2,831 people in April 2025. Half were paid $2 for each correct guess about growth, unemployment, and inflation figures not yet published. “Partisan bias did not shrink as a result.”
In May 2026 consumer sentiment was 32.8 for Democrats, 84.6 for Republicans, and 40.6 for independents. Under a Democratic president in June 2022, it was the other way around. The report says the two parties’ relative positions switch when the White House changes party.
A survey of 9,750 adults, May 26 to June 1, 2026. 53% of Republicans and 56% of Democrats gave “my party sticks up for people like me” as a major reason for their party. Larger shares cited the harm they see in the other party’s policies.
After an American Eagle jeans ad with the actress Sydney Sweeney drew criticism and praise, the president posted that she was a registered Republican with the “HOTTEST” ad out there, and that “Being WOKE is for losers, being Republican is what you want to be.” NBC News covered the ad and the backlash before his post.
Cracker Barrel unveiled a new logo without the old man leaning on a barrel and drew an online uproar. On August 26, 2025, the president posted that the company should “go back to the old logo, admit a mistake,” and that evening, NBC and CBS reported, the company said the old-timer would stay. On September 9 it suspended restaurant remodels.
A Trump-branded wireless service launched in June 2025 with a plan at $47.45 a month, named for his count as the 45th and 47th president, and promised a gold phone. AP reported in January 2026 that the phone had not shipped and that its “built in the United States” promise had been softened.
Target ended its diversity goals in January 2025, and civil rights activists called a boycott. By its own report, comparable sales fell 3.8% in the first quarter of 2025.
NBC News Stay Tuned poll with SurveyMonkey, April 11 to 20, 2025, including 2,230 adults aged 18 to 29. Among them, 45% of men and 24% of women approved of the president’s job performance; 38% of men and 20% of women called themselves Republicans.
Views of Taylor Swift are sharply split by party, even after accounting for age, gender, and other factors. On a 100-point scale, young women averaged 55 and young men 43, a gap the authors did not find among older Americans.
The order says parents trust schools to “instill a patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation” and objects to children being “compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors.” It reestablishes a commission to promote patriotic education.
Read the article below, then try the six questions. Each one uses a different reading skill from part two, in rough order of difficulty. Write your answer down before you open the strong answer.
Paragraph 20 says pop stars have become “partisan litmus tests.” What is a litmus test here?
A single quick sign used to tell which side someone is on. Liking or disliking Swift gets treated as a shortcut to your politics.
Paragraph 20
On the 100-point scale, how did young women and young men rate Swift, and was the gap the same for older Americans?
Young women averaged 55 and young men 43. The authors say the gap was not present among older Americans.
Paragraph 8
In one or two sentences of your own, what is the article’s main point?
How people feel about Taylor Swift now lines up with party and, among young people, with gender, so liking her has become one more way to signal which side you are on. That is part of a wider trend in which everyday tastes become political badges and shared spaces shrink.
Paragraphs 2 to 6 and 20
Young women averaged 55 and young men 43 on a 100-point scale. Does that mean most young men dislike Swift?
No. 43 is a little below the middle of the scale and 55 a little above it. The numbers show a gap between averages, not a split between love and hate, and many young men may simply be neutral. The headline-style line in paragraph 4, “young men don’t,” is stronger than the numbers.
Paragraphs 4 and 8
Paragraphs 13 to 15 and 18 compare views of Swift with views of a politician. What do the authors say the two have in common?
Hostile sexism, negative attitudes toward women and a sense that men should dominate, predicts negative views of Swift and also predicted negative views of Kamala Harris in 2024, as earlier research found for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Paragraphs 13 to 15 and 18
Paragraph 15 says the backlash “is not about her lyrics or her image. It’s about what she represents.” What kind of statement is that, and what would you need to check it?
It is the authors’ interpretation of why people dislike her, which goes beyond what a survey can show. The survey shows that hostile sexism goes along with negative views; it does not show why each person feels that way, and the article does not say whether people were asked about her lyrics or image. To check, you would need the paper itself (the article does not give the survey’s name, dates, or size) and data on the reasons people give.
Paragraph 15, with paragraphs 3 and 14
Connect it to the cards: the president’s August 2025 post on card 6 also called Swift a “Woke singer.” That is the same sorting, from the other side. Download the printable worksheet (PDF), with room to write and an answer key. Want more practice? Play Between the Lines: read a current news article, answer twelve questions, and see your reading level.
The first three moves work on what you believe. This one works on who you are. Once a claim is part of a team, a fact that cuts against it does not feel like information. It feels like an insult to people you love.
What stayed with me from the research is the 2003 study. The students followed their party on a plan that went against their own stated values, and then told the researchers their party had mattered least. Nobody thinks it is happening to them.
That is why the advice on card 8 is about swapping the team: would I believe this if the other side said it? I want my kids to be able to belong somewhere and still ask that question, out loud, at our table.