Social Expectations of Brexit Identities: An Incentivized Experiment

• In Event: Divisions and Cleavages in Contemporary Europe

Abstract

Social identities, such as partisanship, are crucial in driving political behavior and attitudes. Injunctive norms associated with social identities are a core mechanism by which identities influence behavior. These group norms are social expectations about what constitutes appropriate behavior for members of the identity group. Thus people's choices typically reflect trade-offs between adherence to these norms and their other preferences. In this paper, we examine the social expectations associated with an emerging social identity in Britain, namely the Brexit identities which have developed in response to the divisive 2016 referendum on UK membership of the European Union. The question is whether such a relatively recent social identity can still generate social expectations that shape individual behavior. Using an incentivized survey-embedded experiment, we show that Brexit identities are associated with strong social norms and these identity group norms are a key mechanism by which these political identities inform policy opinions.

Authors

• Sara B Hobolt, London School of Economics

• Mark A. Pickup, Simon Fraser University

• James Tilley, Jesus College