Partisan Stereotyping and Polarization in Brazil

• In Event: Polarization in Latin America: Multiple Dimensions and Varied Effects

Abstract

In recent decades, political polarization in Brazil has centered around support for or opposition to the Workers’ Party (PT). What explains the animosity between petistas and antipetistas, who constitute up to half of Brazil’s electorate? An important source of polarization is partisan stereotyping, a tendency for both supporters and opponents of the PT to misperceive the composition of both their own side’s bases of support as well as their opponents’. We hypothesize that both petistas and antipetistas will considerably overestimate the extent to which supporters and opponents belong to party-stereotypical groups. For example, Brazilians who hold positive and/or negative partisan attitudes should overestimate the percentage of petistas who are poor, people of color, northeasterners, women, and LGBTQ+, and overestimate the percentage of antipetistas who are well-off, older, white men. Voters mischaracterize both their own side as well as the other, but bias in out-group misperception is larger. We further show that misperceptions are correlated with stronger partisan affect, perceptions of greater out-group extremism, and tighter allegiance to the in-group – the core elements of affective polarization.

Authors

• David J. Samuels, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

• Cesar Zucco, Getulio Vargas Foundation

• Fernando Barros de Mello, Carlos III-Juan March Institute of Social Sciences