Are Republicans and Democrats driven by hatred of one another? Less than you think

When it comes to attitudes and behaviors among members of American political parties, the conventional wisdom is that hate is stronger than love.

In the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, the perception of negative partisanship by Democrats and Republicans has ballooned. It has become a popular assumption that members of America's political parties are more united by their hatred of the other side of the aisle than by their affinity to their own.

A new study from the University of Pennsylvania suggests that this is not the case. The research team investigated what motivates Americans to support the Democratic and Republican parties. The paper found that the perception of American partisanship as overwhelmingly negative is overstated.

To what extent is partisan hatred widespread? Is that hatred more intense than their party affiliation?

The study found that people's primary motives for choosing a party are more strongly tied to their hatred of another party. The study measured the degree to which allegiances are motivated by hatred of the other party using an experiment to disentangle hurting the other side financially from helping one's own side.

Negative partisanship is problematic on many levels.

If there is a gap in how much you like your side and dislike the other side, you are less likely to hold presidents accountable for things and more likely to vote for your side. It is much more toxic.

Lee hopes that the study will help everyday Americans understand what motivates voters.

She says that many people are led to believe that the other side is driven by hatred and is out to get them.

Lelkes agrees with the findings of the study and thinks it deserves more attention. He notes that scholars tend to love the term negative partisanship and that news outlets may have a bias towards covering extreme emotions that garner more clicks.

The impact can be self-fulfilling, when we talk about politics being overwhelmingly negative. We are trying to tone that down.

More information: Amber Hye-Yon Lee et al, Negative partisanship is not more prevalent than positive partisanship, Nature Human Behaviour (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-022-01348-0 Journal information: Nature Human Behaviour Citation: Are Republicans and Democrats driven by hatred of one another? Less than you think (2022, May 20) retrieved 20 May 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-05-republicans-democrats-driven-hatred.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.