Defensive Partisanship? Evidence that In‐Party Scandals Increase Out‐Party Hostility

Abstract

Contemporary U.S. politics is characterized by polarization and interpartisan antipathy. This is accompanied by a media landscape saturated with coverage of political scandals. Applying a social identity perspective, we examined whether exposure to scandals that threaten partisan's moral group image (i.e., in‐party scandals), may motivate defensive hostility against opposing partisans. Across three experiments we exposed U.S. partisans to scandals attributed to either in‐party or out‐party politicians. We then assessed partisan hostility using a variety of operationalizations, including anger at a real outgroup politician (Study 1), judgments about the alleged misdeeds of a fabricated outgroup politician (Study 2), and negative perceptions of opposing party members (Study 3). Strength of partisan identity was assessed as a predicted moderator (Study 3). As expected in‐ (vs. out‐) party scandals, were perceived as group‐image threats and elicited greater hostility towards opposing partisans, independent of partisans' ideological extremity or prior affective polarization.

The role of (social) media in political polarization: a systematic review

“…Regarding affective polarization, most studies found that traditional media predicted increased affective polarization. Reading a news article about an in-party scandal (Rothschild et al,2021), having a highly diverse media environment alongside exposure to negative political ads (Lau et al, 2017), being exposed to likeminded (vs. cross-cutting) news media (Levendusky, 2013), and incivility on news media from out-party sources (Druckman et al, 2019), were associated with increased affective polarization. However, some researchers' experimental manipulations decreased affective polarization.…”

Reducing Affective Polarization: Warm Group Relations or Policy Compromise?

“…As an outcome of social sorting, partisans are now more distinct from each other demographically than in the past, with fewer cross‐cutting identities to stabilize interparty relations (Mason, 2016, 2018; Mason & Wronski, 2018). Growing partisan social dissimilarity has exacerbated an “us versus them” mentality resulting in greater negative affect toward partisan rivals whose disputes are not just partisan but also extend to related claims concerning group respect and status (Mason, 2015, 2018; see also Ahler & Sood, 2018; Rothschild, Keefer, & Hauri, 2020). From this perspective, identity threats are a key ingredient in the development of affective polarization.…”

El papel de los medios de comunicación en contextos de polarización afectiva: una revisión sistemática de la literatura

“…El contenido que presenta el conflicto político entre partidos, fomentaría la hostilidad partidista a través del refuerzo de la identidad partidista por amenaza externa y en consecuencia la polarización afectiva a través del consumo de noticias como un factor intermediario entre ambos (McLaughlin, 2018). En este aspecto, los escándalos políticos son también un momento de saliencia de la identidad partidista y de aumento de la hostilidad hacia el out-group pero no reduce la favorabilidad hacia el in-group (Rothschild et al, 2021).…”