Seeking Evidence of The MAGA Cult and Trump Derangement Syndrome: An Examination of (A)symmetric Political Bias

Abstract

Three studies sought to explore the existence of (a)symmetric bias regarding Donald Trump. In Study 1, participants read one of three statements expressing different degrees of favorability toward electing the President of the United States via a National Popular Vote attributed to Trump or an anonymous source. In Study 2, participants read one of two statements either favoring or disfavoring the name change of the Washington NFL franchise, and the statement was attributed to either Trump or an anonymous source. In Study 3, Trump and Biden voters were asked to rate their support or opposition to counting all the votes in battleground states when continued counting was expected to either help Trump or Biden. Results for all three studies supported the asymmetric bias hypothesis. Trump supporters consistently showed bias in favor of the interests and ostensible positions of Trump, whereas Trump’s detractors did not show an opposing bias.

Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts

“…Finally, in-group favouritism, out-group derogation and refusal to compromise seem to be more strongly associated with conservative ideology and Republican identification in the USA than with liberal ideology and Democratic identification 10 , 73 – 75 . In line with this asymmetry, self-identified conservatives are more likely than liberals to exhibit the aforementioned ‘President-in-power’ effect; that is, to trust the government more when their own party (versus the other party) holds the White House 161 , 186 , 187 .…”

“…This type of polarization is typically operationalized as approaching or arriving at a bimodal distribution of beliefs, opinions and values 50 , 72 . This implies either that two groups — such as liberals and conservatives or leftists and rightists — are moving in opposite, more extreme directions (symmetric polarization) or that one group is becoming more extreme than the other (asymmetric polarization 10 , 34 , 47 , 48 , 73 – 75 ).…”

“…These differences in beliefs, opinions and values might well create asymmetries in all three forms of polarization, but more research is needed to link individual and group differences in system justification to political outcomes such as communication, persuasion, polarization and democratic commitment. Studies along these lines would help to illuminate the causes and consequences of dramatic asymmetries in the attitudes and behaviours of liberal-leftists and conservative-rightists in the USA and elsewhere 10 , 34 , 47 , 48 , 73 – 75 , 161 , 167 , 185 – 187 , 310 – 315 .…”

(A)symmetries in Memory and Directed Forgetting of Political Stimuli

“…However, there is also ample evidence to suggest that, at least in some circumstances, conservatives engage in more biased cognition than liberals. For example, US Republicans have been found to perceive less legitimacy in Democratic administrations than vice versa ( Morisi et al, 2018 ) and are more likely to oppose democratic (small “d”) values when it suits their interests ( Franks & Hesami, 2021 ). Conservatives also show a higher degree of partisanship in their preferred media sources and are more likely to spread political misinformation ( Faris et al, 2017 ).…”