How Do Americans Explain Their Party Identification and Out-Partisan Animosity?

2026/04/23 by Anthony Fowler, Gregory A. Huber, Rongbo Jin +1 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Gender Politics and Representation #Populism, Right-Wing Movements

paper · doi:10.1093/poq/nfag044

openalex publication_date 2026/04/23 · openalex created_date 2026/07/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02

Abstract

Abstract Political scientists often claim that partisanship is explained by nonpolicy factors such as early childhood experiences, parental influence, and group membership. In this paper, we use open-ended survey questions to elicit partisan Americans’ own explanations for their affiliations as well as their attitudes toward the opposite party. Policy, values, and ideology are the most common reasons Americans say they identify as a Democrat or Republican and feel the way they do about members of the other party. The rate at which these reasons are cited far exceeds expectations of published scholars of partisanship. Findings do not vary meaningfully across party, region, gender, race, age, or socioeconomic status.

Citations

• “I Disrespectfully Agree”: The Differential Effects of Partisan Sorting on Social and Issue Polarization
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• Affect, Not Ideology
• Expressive Partisanship: Campaign Involvement, Political Emotion, and Partisan Identity
• Old Times There Are Not Forgotten: Race and Partisan Realignment in the Contemporary South
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• What Do We Measure When We Measure Affective Polarization?
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• Is Affective Polarization Driven by Identity, Loyalty, or Substance?

Discussions

• Colleagues in political science will show impressive results that there's more principled restraint out in the mass public than you might think, and more than inadequately designed previous political [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]

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• What Is It Like To Be a Partisan? Measures of Partisanship and Its Value for Democracy
• Affective Polarization or Partisan Disdain?
• Whose Party Is This? Explaining Perceptions of US Party Ideology
• Social Identity Theory and Party Identification*
• The Strengthening of Partisan Affect