Negative partisanship is not more prevalent than positive partisanship

Area of Science:

• Political Science
• Social Psychology

Background:

• The prevailing view of American partisanship is overwhelmingly negative.
• Scholars and pundits often describe citizens as more repelled by opposing parties than attached to their own.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the valence (positive or negative) of partisan identity.
• To challenge the dominant negative partisanship narrative with empirical data.

Main Methods:

• Utilized nationally representative surveys with various measures of partisan identity.
• Incorporated behavioral outcomes from two experiments differentiating positive and negative group behaviors.

Main Results:

• Findings contradict the negative partisanship narrative for the majority of Americans.
• Partisan identity is equally positive and negative, or more positive than negative, for most citizens.
• Partisan leaners were identified as the primary group exhibiting negative partisanship.

Conclusions:

• Descriptions of American partisanship as primarily negative are exaggerated.
• Behavioral manifestations of party identity show a balance of positive and negative biases, not solely negative.
• Partisan identity holds both positive and negative dimensions for most Americans.