About This Project

There has been increasing dislike and distrust between Republicans and Democrats in the US. Such affective polarization is rooted in people's identification with the two parties, but we know little about its underlying mechanism. However, different mechanisms may lead to different policy-making implications. This study presents an experiment during the 2022 midterm election to distinguish between the preference-based and belief-based mechanisms of affective polarization.

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What is the context of this research?

In recent years, Republicans and Democrats increasingly dislike and distrust people from the opposing party. For example, people don't want their children to marry counter-partisans. The primary explaining factor for this phenomenon is that people develop a stronger sense of belongingness with the two political parties, as they identify with their gender and ethnic groups. However, is it enough just to be a member of either party? What else causes people to display affective polarization? According to social identity theory, two approaches can explain the underlying mechanism: One is preference-based, driven by pure distaste toward counter-partisans without specific reasons; the other is belief-based, driven by inaccurate stereotypes of others' traits.

What is the significance of this project?

The dislike and distrust between Democrats and Republicans, namely affective polarization, is making American society more divided. Therefore, it is important to reduce affective polarization and its negative impacts. Though both preference-based and belief-based approaches can provide explanations for affective polarization, the implications for policy-making based on these two mechanisms are quite different. If it is preference-based, it may be difficult to correct people’s prejudices. What we can do is to emphasize belongingness to the whole nation rather than a particular political party. If it is belief-based, though it is still hard to eliminate affective polarization, we may be able to reduce it by providing people with the correct information about counter-partisans.

What are the goals of the project?

We want to conduct a field experiment to distinguish between the preference-based and belief-based mechanisms of affective polarization. We believe the midterm election, as a battle between the two parties, will make people's political identities stand out. Therefore, they will show more affective polarization with this salience increase. By investigating how their preferences and beliefs change, we will be able to identify the underlying mechanism. More specifically, if we observe people showing more distaste for counter-partisans without any concrete reason, affective polarization should be driven by preferences; if we observe people increasingly believing that their counter-partisans are not as intelligent and trustworthy as their co-partisans, beliefs should be the driving factor.