Facebook can be a political minefield of polarized opinions, especially leading up to the midterm elections. For those looking to keep the peace, it turns out steering the conversation toward Taylor Swift might be the perfect way to extend the olive branch.
In preparation for election day, Facebook released a new study comparing the cultural similarities and differences of people who support Democrats versus Republicans. They used data based on what political campaigns users “liked,” and compared it to other pages “liked” by these same users.
Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ Headed for 1 Million Sales Debut
The resulting charts showed that many primetime television shows — Grey’s Anatomy, The Walking Dead and Two and a Half Men, for example — are fairly balanced. Musicians, on the other hand, were more polarizing. The Beatles were much more often liked by Democrats and George Strait by Republicans. But who was the queen reaching across party lines? None other than Miss Taylor Swift.
First she shoots to the top of the iTunes chart in Canada with eight seconds of static. Now she’s uniting a polarized America. Behold, the power of Swift.
Facebook has more charts on the similarities and differences between Republicans and Democrats including landmarks, books and authors. Spoiler alert: Catching Fire is a unifying book. Because Katniss.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.