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Voter Preferences Reflect a Competition Between Policy and Identity
Libby Jenke1, Scott A Huettel2
1Department of Political Science, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States.
Frontiers in Psychology
|November 12, 2020
Summary
Voter behavior often prioritizes social identity over policy alignment. Our study shows that for some voters, identity reinforcement completely overshadows policy considerations in candidate choice.
Area of Science:
- Political Science
- Social Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Rational choice models assume voters prioritize policy alignment.
- Voter behavior frequently emphasizes social identity over policy positions.
- Empirical evidence is needed to understand policy-identity interactions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To empirically test the interplay between policy preferences and social identity in voter decision-making.
- To investigate whether social identity can override policy considerations in candidate selection.
- To explain discrepancies between stated policy preferences and actual voting behavior.
Main Methods:
- Surveys of likely voters conducted before the 2016 US presidential and 2018 US senatorial elections.
- Data collection on voter policy preferences and social group identities.
- Analysis of how social identities are reinforced by voting choices.
Main Results:
- Striking evidence of a competition between policy and social identity.
- For voters strongly influenced by identity, policy positions became irrelevant to candidate preference.
- Identified a significant dissociation between stated policy preferences and voting behavior.
Conclusions:
- Social identity plays a critical, sometimes dominant, role in voter preferences.
- Findings challenge traditional rational choice models of voting.
- Integrates psychological and neuroscientific models with political behavior observations.
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