Democrats and Republicans choose solar panels in very similar ways

Appealing to individuals' social identity is a powerful form of social influence, capable of changing the way people process information, the information they think about, and how they evaluate other individuals. The purpose of this study is to explore the idea that Democrat and Republican environmental norms may impact the attributes and strategies partisans use when choosing whether to have solar panels on a house.

An online study with N = 363 participants was conducted to examine these possible effects through multi-attribute decision making, applying predefined decision process models to participant behavior to test which attribute-based models best describe participants' decision making. A choice task was combined with an experimental manipulation of political affiliation salience to examine whether the norms of political groups would have influence on decision behavior.

Results of the study show remarkable similarities between political parties in their strategies for choosing solar panels. Members of both political parties appeared to use similar strategies and similar attributes for the formation of their decisions.

Recommendations are made that science communicators and policy makers avoid polarizing language so as not to create unnecessary polarization where ideological gaps may not currently exist.