How to Be Good: Fostering Positive Partisanship through Group Norms

• In Event: Understanding Intra-party Norms and Polarization

Abstract

Recent scholarship on partisanship has been making the case for a distinction between positive and negative partisanship. While the former is defined as a strong attachment to or identification with a political party, the latter develops in opposition to a political party, thereby turning the “not one of them” into a meaningful social identity. Within the string of research, two findings have been particularly noteworthy: First, positive and negative partisanship are independent of each other which means that they do not have to occur together. Second, negative - not positive - partisanship is the main driver behind many disconcerting partisan attitudes and behaviors, including the willingness to use violence against the out-party. Indeed, some work even shows that positive partisanship cannot just increase political engagement but it can also promote a more humanizing view of the out-party. Yet, it is unclear how to foster this type of good partisanship. In this manuscript, I argue that in-party as well as out-party norms - as embodied by party leaders - shape our understanding of what it means to be a good partisan. Utilizing experimental evidence, I show that the way partisans react to electoral threat from an out-party depends crucially on the perceived group norms of the in-party as well as the out-party. These findings not just challenge the notion of a universal and unvaried partisan response to group threat but it also emphasizes the importance of taking into account out-party norms when predicting partisan behavior.

Author

• Alexa Bankert, University of Georgia