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Abstract
Recent research suggests that political polarization has spilled over into otherwise mundane areas of social life. And yet, the size, shape, and depth of that spillage into popular culture are generally unknown. Relying on a sample of 135 widely known movies, TV shows, musicians, sports, and leisure activities, we investigate these issues. We find the "oil spill" of polarization into popular culture is large but loosely organized into multiple fairly shallow pools. Cultural polarization is also asymmetric. Liberals like a wide variety of popular culture, do not dislike conservative popular culture, and their tastes are more rooted in their sociodemographics. Conservatives, on the other hand, like a much narrower range of popular culture, dislike the culture created and liked by Black and urban liberals, and their tastes seem to be more directly rooted in their political ideology. Potential implications of an asymmetric culture war, and ideas for future research, are discussed.

Sociologists agree that there is something cultural that exists within individuals, in interactions, and in objects. And yet the process through which the culture inside individuals interacts with the culture outside of them is only partially understood and is generally untested. Relying on a novel quasi‐experimental design, we investigate how the culture within individuals, interactions, and objects operates in the making of shared meanings. First, we find that cultural schemas set a baseline for shared meanings of objects. Second, we find that shared meanings are also made through interactions, and more vociferously between individuals with shared schemas. Third, we find that objects encoded with meanings set a higher baseline in interpretive clarity than more ambiguous objects. Lastly, we find that schema similarity and interactions jointly lead to greater shared meanings for more ambiguous objects, suggesting that individuals within groups work rapidly toward generating institutionalized and objectified meanings for objects when those assigned meanings do not yet exist. Findings begin to uncover the routine mechanisms of shared meaning creation, pointing toward new empirical frontiers in culture and cognition.

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Derogation of the victim refers to the tendency of an observer to negatively evaluate someone hurt by the action of another. Victim derogation has been a core feature of social psychology for decades, but evidence suggests this phenomenon is weakening. It may even be reversing into a valorization of victims. Is this empirical pattern due to methodological changes and shifts in theoretical framing of victim studies, or have there been large-scale cultural changes in how we view victims? This review outlines the theoretical and methodological origins of the derogation effect. It then discusses contemporary research streams that show the malleability of victim perception in research that considers the entire harmful social interaction. These studies suggest that shifts in broader social, political, and cultural environments may have impacted the social psychological foundations of derogation.