Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: Although anecdotal stories of political anger and enthusiasm appear to be provoked largely by issues such as gay marriage or healthcare reform, social sorting is capable of playing a powerful role in driving anger and enthusiasm, undercutting the perception that only practical disagreements are driving higher levels of political rancor. Because a highly aligned set of social identities increases an individual’s perceived differences between groups, the emotions that result from group conflict are likely to be heightened among well-sorted partisans. An experimental design in a national online survey manipulates political threats and reassurances, including a threat to a party and a threat to distinct policy goals. Issue positions are found to drive anger and enthusiasm in the presence of issue-based messages, but not all party-based messages. Partisan identity drives anger and enthusiasm in the presence of party-based threats and reassurances, but not all issue-based messages. Social sorting, however, drives anger and enthusiasm in response to all threats and reassurances, suggesting that well-sorted partisans are more reliably emotionally reactive to political messages. Finally, these results are driven not by the most-sorted partisans, but by the emotional dampening effect that occurs among those with the most cross-cutting identities. As social sorting increases in the American electorate, the cooler heads inspired by cross-cutting identities are likely to be taking up a smaller portion of the electorate.
Source: Public Opinion Quarterly
DOI: 10.1093/poq/nfw001
Author: Lilliana Mason
Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: National Science Foundation
Awards: Bringing the Senate Election Study to Completion, The Systematic Study of Senate Elections, Long-Term Support for the National Election Studies: 1989- 1993, Long-Term Support For the American National Election Studies1984-1988, Long-Term Support for the National Elections Studies 1998-2001, Long-Term Support for the National Election Studies, 1994-1998, Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Partisan and Ideological Sorting in the United States, Long-Term Support For the American National Election Studies
OpenAlex ID: W2302938491