From a very young age, we have been socialized to view the world as consisting of “goods” and “villains.” When you’re a kid who’s been tricked with friends on the playground, no one wants to be a buddy. And when it comes to dressing up, everyone wants to be Luke Skywalker, not Darth Vader.
This overly simplistic way of viewing the world as good and composed of wrong people, good people and bad people does not dissipate as we age. If anything, it tends to solidify when we form a social identity that defines who we are in adulthood.
This is especially true with regard to our political identities, specifically the partisan identity and loyalty that individuals accompany.
Partisanship is a hell of powerful power. Not only do we label the party under the candidates, but we also decide whether we support them, but often, regardless of what individual candidates actually represent – it shapes how we see the state of the country and the economy. Keep an eye on Democrats’ views on how the US economy was tanked, while Donald Trump took office and his aggressiveness about the same economy spiked.
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Our partisanship can also affect who we interact with, who we share our beer, and who we date. There is even evidence that it affects who is hired and who is not. Knowing who your neighbors will vote for and whether they will vote for “your team” will shape their views as good or bad.
New research shows that the opposite is true too. If you think someone is “we” or one of “thems,” it is a good or bad form to know someone. In other words, partisans project their political identities on those who see them as good, and project their enemy’s political identities on those who dislike them.
Who will Darth Vader and Cinderella vote for?
The first part of this study was a social experiment that gave a political twist to the childish game. In a representative survey of thousands of respondents from both the US and the UK, participants showed images of fictional characters. These were heroes like Harry Potter and Spider-Man, or Scarred Villains from Disney’s “The Lion King” and villains like Joffrey Bara Theon in Game of Thrones.
Participants were then asked to infer the political affiliation of each character. It was an impressive pattern that appeared. Participants thought that the heroes voted for the same party as them, and the villain voted for the opposition party.
Essentially, American Democrats consistently thought Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermione voted for Democrats, while Republicans consistently thought they voted for Republicans. Similar behavior was expected for heroes (and villain opposition) across many characters in different films and fiction.
Percentages of each character thought they voted for “their” party:
Stuart Turnbull – DagarteCC by-nd
Participants thought Spiderman, Cinderella, Yoda, Aladdin, Brienne of Tarth, Gandalf and Captain America shared political views. They lost Kylo Ren, Ursula the Sea Witch, Cersei Lannister and Thanos along with political opposition.
Participants were also asked to read short stories about local politicians. In one version of the story, the politician was portrayed as a generous person who gave money to a charity. In another case, the same politician was shown in a negative light and as accused of corruption. There was no partisan point in the story that was mentioned in the politicians.
Despite the lack of direct reference to partisanship, respondents mistakenly “reminded” the politician’s party affiliation in a way that fits the moral tone of the story. Participants in the labor polls who read the stories of generous politicians said they remember it was about labor politicians. Conservative voters reading the same story said they remember it was about conservative politicians. An inverse pattern was observed among participants who read the stories of corrupt politicians.
These results are impressive. Even if there was nothing to remember and participants could say that partisanship was not part of the story, voters read what they wanted based on their tribe’s political identity.
Alamy/©Warner Bros/courtesy Everett Collection
These studies show that partisan identity undermines voter rationality. Politically motivated predictions – assuming that good people must be one of “we” and bad people must be one of “thems,” it does not only shape the way others see them. Strengthen and integrate partisan divisions.
If we assume that the person who lives next door is a poor neighbor to vote for our political enemy, and at the same time, that the person who lives on the street is voting for our political enemy, then we quickly feel that the political tribal instincts are increasingly justified, as they are poor neighbors.
This cycle of political villains deepens division and makes it difficult to find a common foundation. As we continue to shape partisanship, not just the way we vote, but also how we see each other, we risk changing those who don’t share our political views with our enemies.
