Inability to Understand Other Points of View

Kate at Small Dead Animals brought to my attention this article at Reason Online about how shocked the left was that many Supreme Court justices were skeptical of the constitutionality of Obamacare:

What can explain liberals’ widespread failure to anticipate the Court’s wariness of the mandate? Research conducted by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt suggests one possible answer: Liberals just aren’t as good as conservatives and libertarians at understanding how their opponents think. Haidt helped conduct research that asked respondents to fill out questionnaires about political narratives—first responding based on their own beliefs, but then responding as if trying to mimic the beliefs of their political opponents. “The results,” he writes in the May issue of Reason, “were clear and consistent.” Moderates and conservatives were the most able to think like their liberal political opponents. “Liberals,” he reports, “were the least accurate, especially those who describe themselves as ‘very liberal.’”

My guess is that this is because conservatives and libertarians are bombarded on a daily basis with liberal and progressive thinking.  We don't have any choice in the matter, really.  Liberals and progressives control the broadcast media, and even so-called "conservative" media such as Fox News are sufficiently even-handed that you hear liberal points of view, even if they are outnumbered by conservatives.  Liberals and progressives control nearly all metropolitan newspapers and national magazines (with a few exceptions), and most institutions of higher learning.  We know what liberals and progressives think, because we are buried in it, to our necks, and sometimes our nostrils, on a daily basis.  How much exposure do liberals and progressives get to our ways of thinking?  Almost none.  That's the disadvantage of living in a bubble of like-minded people.