2026/05/20 by Lucca Hoffeller, Nils D. Steiner · 2 voices
Social Sciences · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Political Conflict and Governance #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
paper · doi:10.1080/01402382.2026.2662884
One key driver of political support is congruence – the alignment between citizens’ policy preferences and those of their representatives. Previous research has focused on egocentric (congruence with a citizen’s own position) or sociotropic congruence (with the electorate overall). This article proposes a third perspective: group-based congruence, where citizens’ support depends on how well their social group’s preferences are represented. Focussing on occupational classes, this article hypothesises that the greater the distance between the government’s position and the preferences of one’s class, the lower an individual’s support. Using data from the European Social Survey, the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, and ParlGov covering 28 countries, it is found that class-based incongruence in four policy domains is associated with lower support. Similar effects are observed for alternative groups, but only insofar as they structure political preferences. Demonstrating that group-based congruence matters, this study adds a novel perspective to research on congruence and political support.