Reducing polarization and "partisan animosity"—the distrust and hatred of the other party—is remarkably difficult, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences evaluating past attempts.

A new study published in the journal Preventive Medicine explores food insufficiency and financial challenges among families after multiple states stopped providing emergency allotments of SNAP benefits provided during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. SNAP benefit reductions were associated with increased difficulty affording both food and household expenses among SNAP-participant families, particularly among those with children. The risk of food insufficiency—a narrow measure that indicates that a household has not had enough food to eat within the past seven days—increased by five percentage points after several states ended their emergency allotments in 2021, compared to states that ended this assistance later. Similarly, the risk of difficulty affording household expenses increased by eight percentage points after the emergency allotments ended.