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Seeing the Other Side: Reducing Political Partisanship via Self‐Affirmation in the 2008 Presidential Election
Author(s) -
Binning Kevin R.,
Sherman David K.,
Cohen Geoffrey L.,
Heitland Kirsten
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
analyses of social issues and public policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.479
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1530-2415
pISSN - 1529-7489
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-2415.2010.01210.x
Subject(s) - opposition (politics) , viewpoints , presidential election , openness to experience , politics , political science , presidential campaign , presidential system , national election , social psychology , political economy , psychology , law , sociology , art , visual arts
The 2008 presidential election brought the partisan divide between U.S. Republicans and Democrats to the forefront. In such contested situations, people who identify with the parties and their candidates experience pressure to adhere to their group's core beliefs and behaviors. This research hypothesized that providing individuals a chance to affirm their self‐integrity would relieve some of this pressure and facilitate greater openness to the opposition. In the 2 days prior to the 2008 election, Democrats (N= 50) and Republicans (N= 60) who affirmed their self‐integrity by writing about important personal values (versus those who did not self‐affirm) were less driven by partisan preferences in their evaluations of Barack Obama's debate performance, more favorable to opposition candidates, and more generally open to alternative viewpoints. Additionally, 10 days after the election, affirmed Republicans thought Obama would make a better president than did nonaffirmed Republicans. Discussion centers on how motivational factors can exacerbate—and attenuate—the divide between “red” and “blue” America .