The Psychological Origins of Negative Partisanship

• In Event: Negative Partisanship, Affective Polarization, and Partisan Hostility

Abstract

Negative partisanship (NPID) describes the intense disdain for a rival political party. A growing number of political scientists in the U.S. and beyond examine the impact of negative partisanship on citizens’ political behavior, asserting the notion that negative partisanship exerts a strong influence, either on its own or in combination with positive partisanship (PPID). Yet, we know little about the psychological origins of negative partisanship: Who is more likely to develop negative partisanship? What kind of personality traits are associated with high levels of negative partisanship, and do they differ from the ones that have been linked to positive partisanship? In this manuscript, I address these questions. Utilizing a sample of U.S. adults and a sample of Swedish adults, I examine the prevalence of prominent personality traits - including authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, the need for closure, and the Big Five - among partisans with strong negative and positive partisanship. I demonstrate that these two types of partisanship have very different psychological origins. Notably, the personality origins of PPID and NPID differ not just across the two samples but also across the ideological aisle whereby negative and positive partisanship on the left is associated with different traits than negative and positive partisanship on the right. I conclude the article with implications for research on polarization and a plea for more comparative work on (positive and negative) partisanship.

Author

• Alexa Bankert, University of Georgia