America is incredibly polarized. It’s bad for our health.

Americans have never been more polarized, and we dislike each other on partisan grounds now more than ever. Perhaps that’s not shocking, but what may come as a surprise is the way it’s hurting our health.

“Political polarization is harming our health in just about every way,” says Matthew Motta, a political scientist and health law scholar who studies anti-science attitudes at Boston University — and “pretty much all aspects of health have become politicized.” That leads elected officials and other authority figures to make bad health policy decisions and communicate with the public in ways that link health behavior with partisan ideology. A public that sees everything through a red-or-blue lens is more likely to distrust experts, dislike policies with clear health benefits, embrace policies with clear health risks, and make self-destructive choices.