When it comes to attitudes and behaviors among members of American political parties, the conventional wisdom is that hate is stronger than love.
Americans’ perception of negative partisanship—that Democrats or Republicans are primarily driven by their hatred for their political opponents — has ballooned in recent years, particularly in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election. It has become a popular assumption that members of America’s political parties are united more by their hatred of the other side of the aisle than by their affinity to their own.
A new study from the Annenberg School for Communication suggests this is not the case. The research team, led by Amber Hye-Yon Lee and associate professor Yphtach Lelkes, investigated what motivates Americans to affiliate with the Democratic and Republican parties. Published in Nature Human Behaviour, the paper finds that the perception of American partisanship as overwhelmingly negative is exaggerated.
The researchers set out to answer two questions: First, to what extent is partisan hatred widespread? And second, is that hatred really more intense than their affinity to their own party members?
Using several different data sets—including a survey directly asking people how their hatred of another party impacts their affiliation decisions—the study found that people’s primary motivations for choosing a party are more strongly tied to love for their own party, rather than hatred of the other side. The study also measured the degree to which allegiances are motivated by hatred of the other party using an experiment designed to disentangle hurting the other side monetarily from helping one’s own side monetarily.
Lelkes stresses that the implications of negative partisanship are problematic on many practical levels.
“If there’s this gap in how much you like your side and dislike the other side, and it’s all motivated by emotions, you’re less likely to hold presidents accountable for things and more likely to vote for your side no matter what they do, even when it’s corrupt,” Lelkes says. “If it’s just driven by hatred, then it’s not about interest groups and coming together and fighting for your group. It’s much more toxic.”
This story is by Katie Sanders. Read more at Annenberg School for Communication.
