Despite a polarized and partisan political environment, most voters who identify as party members say they have a close friend on the other side of the aisle, according to recent data. NBC News national poll.
However, Democrats in the survey were less likely to say they had close cross-party friendships, the results show.
More than 8 in 10 Republicans (82%) said they have at least one close Democratic friend, while just over 6 in 10 Democrats (64%) are close friends with a Republican—a gap of 18 percentage points.
This difference is most pronounced among voters who are most loyal to each party and more ideological.
Meanwhile, voters who considered themselves moderate were more likely to have close friends from the opposite party.
Self-described moderate Republicans (87%) were 8 points more likely to say they have a close Democratic friend than conservative Republicans (79%). Likewise, moderate Democrats (78%) were 21 percent more likely to say they have a close Republican friend than liberal Democrats (57%).
Among voters classified as “core” GOP supporters, 77% have a close Democratic friend, while 90% of “soft” Republican voters do. A similar gap was observed between “core” Democratic voters (57%) and “soft” Democrats (73%) when it came to having a close Republican friend.
Other factors such as age, gender and higher education did not have a significant impact on the likelihood that people would say they had cross-party friendships.
However, religion stood out: Republicans who attended religious services more frequently were slightly less likely to have a close Democratic friend, while more religious Democrats held the opposite view. Democrats who frequently attend religious services are about 10 points more likely to have a close Republican friend, according to the poll.
The NBC News poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters Oct. 24-28 through telephone interviews and an online survey sent via text message. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
