to Your Political Opinion?
By Leticia Josefsson Lazo | News | June 10th, 2026
Cover Illustration: January 5, 2018. José Manuel Infante / Unsplash
Would you date someone who voted for the opposite political party? A question that once might have seemed intrusive or even irrelevant now appears increasingly common among students navigating friendships, romance and identity in a deeply politicised world.
In the Netherlands, we are protected by both the right to privacy and the freedom of expression. But in what many describe as an increasingly politicised world, a new question emerges: do we feel entitled to know the political beliefs of others?
By “entitled to know,” I do not mean entitled to shape or judge another person’s political beliefs. Instead, I mean whether people feel they have a right to know what those beliefs are. Whether people then use the information to form judgments is a separate question entirely.
At first glance, the answer may be obvious. Of course people are entitled to their own beliefs. But when the question shifts to include friends, family members or romantic partners, it becomes more complicated. Some people may want to know the political opinions of those close to them simply to understand them better. Others may feel there is a social expectation of openness in close relationships and political beliefs may influence whether they want those relationships to continue at all. This raises an important distinction: is wanting to know someone’s political beliefs the same as being entitled to know them?
To explore this, I spoke with students at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), asking whether they believe they have a right to know the political views of friends, family members, influencers, or even strangers, and whether those views should influence personal relationships.
Initially, many students answered no. Without further prompting, they largely agreed that political beliefs are personal and private. However, when the question was reframed to focus specifically on close relationships, responses became more divided. Many felt it was important to know the beliefs of friends, family members, and partners, while feeling far less entitled to the opinions of influencers or strangers.
This raised another question: if people feel inclined to know the political beliefs of those around them, why is that? What is it that they get from this information? One may wonder, do political beliefs become a deciding factor in whether friendship, love, or even family ties are possibleMany students said they already maintain close relationships with people who hold opposing political views. There were, however, differences in how significant they considered those disagreements to be. Some explained that while they could maintain casual friendships across political differences, their closest relations would likely involve people with similar values. Others said their longest and strongest friendships were with people whose political opinions differed completely from their own.
“Is it fair to evaluate a relationship based on preconceived assumptions about the moral values associated with political affiliations?”
Perhaps political disagreement becomes easier to navigate when a relationship has existed long before those political differences emerged. Many of our closest friendships are formed during childhood or adolescence, before people have fully developed political identities. Years of shared experiences, trust and emotional support can create bonds that are not easily undone by disagreement. Political compatibility may therefore matter less in long-standing relationships than in newer ones.
The same could be said for family relationships. Unlike friendships or romantic partnerships, family ties are often not relationships people choose. For many, maintaining those relationships means learning to coexist with different beliefs, values and lifestyles. Political disagreement may simply become another difference to manage rather than a reason to end the relationship altogether. This may help explain why some students who described politics as important were still able to maintain close relationships with people whose views differed significantly from their own. It also leaves open an interesting possibility: if those same relationships were formed today rather than years ago, would they develop in the same way, or does the history shared between people make political differences easier to accept than they otherwise would be?
The existence of these long-standing relationships suggests that political disagreement alone is not always enough to create conflict.
When I asked whether these differences caused tension, one student argued that politics “interferes only in relationships when brought up – otherwise no”. Others echoed similar views, saying that it depends on how political beliefs affect someone’s moral views and values.
Yet this introduces another debate entirely: can politics really be separated from everyday life? For many people, politics shapes opinions on identity, equality, climate, immigration and human rights, issues that inevitably influence daily interactions and personal values. It also raises another question: is claiming to “not be political” a political stance in itself?
To one student, it is, and admitted that they would struggle to maintain a close relationship with someone whose political beliefs fundamentally opposed their ownAt the same time, there is a growing tendency to link political beliefs to deeper personal values and traits. But is there scientific grounding for this? Some researchers have attempted to examine whether political orientation is associated with differences in empathy and moral reasoning. A study conducted in May 2023 used brain imaging to examine how individuals with different political orientations responded to stories of suffering. The findings suggested that people who identify as politically left-leaning may show greater empathy towards strangers. However, such research remains nuanced and far from definitive. Other research has suggested that politically right-leaning individuals may express stronger concern for those within their immediate social circles. Ultimately, these studies point to tendencies rather than fixed characteristics.
“So, are people entitled to your political opinion? Legally, no. Socially, however, the answer appears far more complicated.”
Before such research is used to reinforce political talking points it is worth asking a broader question: even if correlations exist, are they meaningful enough to shape how we judge others or decide who we connect with? Is it fair to evaluate a relationship based on preconceived assumptions about the moral values associated with political affiliations?
What I found more interesting was the contradiction in many responses. People who strongly defend the privacy of political beliefs were often willing to maintain relationships with those who disagreed with them politically. Yet at the same time, some of the people who believed they had a right to know others’ political opinions also described having close relationships with people whose views differed from their own.
In the end, students I spoke to rarely arrived at a definitive answer and perhaps that uncertainty is the answer. People may defend the privacy of political beliefs while still searching for shared beliefs in those closest to them. So, are people entitled to your political opinion? Legally, no. Socially, however, the answer appears far more complicated. In a politicised world, knowing someone’s politics is not just about understanding how they vote; for many, it has become a way of understanding who they are. As politics becomes increasingly tied to identity and morality, many continue to navigate the difficult balance between respecting personal privacy and seeking common ground in the people around them.
Perhaps the silver lining is that, for most, common ground exists even between people who hold opposing views.
Leticia Josefsson Lazo is a university student in Amsterdam. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Amsterdammer.
