"Joe Biden Is a Fake Catholic?": How Partisan Polarization Divides Social Groups

• In Event: Experimental Methods in Religion and Politics Research

Abstract

Can a shared identity be a negative characteristic for politicians in the eyes of voters? In recent elections, Joe Biden has received significant criticism from conservative American Catholics not merely in spite of his Catholic identity, but in part because of his Catholic identity. In this view, conservative Catholics have publicly recoiled at what they consider to be an incompatibility between liberal positions on social issues such as abortion and Catholic identity. Examining the case of religion and politics, I use both observational data and original survey experiment data to test if Catholic identity among politically liberal candidates causes a particular backlash among conservative Catholics relative to non-Catholic liberal candidates. The results of this study deepen our understanding of Catholic politics in the United States, and consider how polarization can lead to divisions within, just just between, social groups.

Author

• James Kirk, University of Notre Dame