Here's a story about a former neighbor, someone who would give you the shirt off his back. And as a highly skilled mechanic, he was willing to help fix kids' bicycles, build a treehouse, and more. Just a great guy.

He and I happened to disagree sharply on large-scale political issues (although we never spoke about it). In 2016, for instance, he put a (relatively small) Trump sign on his front yard (I identify politically as a socialist and am happy to exercise my right to state that fact publicly). This fact didn't surprise me, and I never held our differing political views against him. I think it is important to keep large-scale politics and personal relationships separate when possible (and I have found that it usually is possible).

As found in a prior study that I led (Geher and colleagues, 2015), people are often not good at processing information about large-scale politics; we are much better at processing information about small-scale politics (such as who should sit next to whom at the Thanksgiving table or figuring out who would be a good ally and friend in a hostile work environment).

In this study, we found that when it comes to large-scale politics (like who should be the president of one of the world's most important countries), people don't always process information all that well. I'd say that these data provide a strong rationale for keeping personal relationships separate from large-scale politics. Given this information, along with his affable nature, I never let my neighbor's political views get in the way of our friendship.

On this point, a very timely paper that will soon be published in the academic journal Psychological Studies asked questions that are relevant at this time:
Are people less likely to help those with whom they disagree........

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