Why Contemporary Elections Reduce American Social Trust

• In Event: Political Parties and American Democracy Mini-Conference I: New Approaches to Political Polarization in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

We hypothesize a spillover effect from the increasing politicization of everyday life onto how ordinary citizens feel about one another. We suggest that American life has become politicized to the point that merely supporting a losing presidential candidate holds the potential to reduce one’s level of social trust, that is, one’s trust in diffuse others. Strong affective polarization makes it ever more difficult for people to fathom how others come to vote as they do. Whether one is a Republican or a Democrat, knowing that that so many other people supported a candidate viewed as dishonest, unreliable, and morally bankrupt, makes it difficult to maintain faith in the masses. When people hold strong political preferences, yet their favored candidate loses, it prompts lower levels of social trust because they conclude that others in their society simply cannot be trusted.

Authors

• Diana C. Mutz, University of Pennsylvania

• Nejla Asimovic, Georgetown University