No One Mourns the Wicked: Partisan Hatred Persisting through Tragedy

• In Event: How Public Opinion Responds to Extreme Events

Abstract

Who do we blame when bad things happen? Has division in American society made us less sympathetic to victims of tragedies? In previous trying times (e.g. 9/11 and Columbine), Americans rallied together to support victims and seek government solutions. In a highly polarized era, however, we have witnessed further division rather than unity. Using original survey experiments, this study examines who Americans blame and sympathize with when someone has tragically died of Covid and from a police shooting. In the case of a person dying from COVID-19, the study finds that Democrats are less sympathetic and more likely to victim-blame when the person who dies is a Republican, regardless of the victim’s vaccination status. Similar patterns do not persist among Republican respondents. Conversely, Democrats are more sympathetic to victims of a police shooting and more likely to blame the police when the victim is Black or Latinx than when the victim is White. The opposite pattern arises among Republicans. These studies demonstrate that in some types of traumatic events, affective partisan polarization persists in overriding older norms of sympathy and unity after tragedy.

Author

• Wayde Z.C. Marsh, Washington University in St. Louis