The Psychology of Political Party Affiliation: Factors Influencing Party Identification, Thesis of Psychology

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Running head: PSYCHOLOGY OF PARTY AFFILIATION 1 The Psychology of Political Party Affiliation Emmanuel L. Rock Jacksonville State University April 1, 2019

The Psychology of Political Party Affiliation In modern politics, political parties are the most influential part of the political process. Individuals may identify themselves as being liberal, conservative, independent, etc. The affiliation among political parties can affect the attitudes and behaviors of affiliating members. There is a strong connection between making opinions, claiming representation to a political party, and long-term party affiliation. Individuals who perceive themselves as members of a party conduct perceptions on values and norms that act as guides toward their political behavior. However, it’s interesting whether those behaviors persuade party affiliation instantly or across time. Political party affiliation is shaped variously by the individual’s personal background, social image and reflection on society, environmental, and group identification. These variables also play a role in the psychological reasoning to understand party affiliation. Affiliation is a positive, personal relationship with a group or party (Astra & Singg, 2010). It includes concerns of establishing, motivating, and restoring a positive relationship with one another in the group. Motivators that thrive from party affiliation sense freedom from stress and fear, and achievement. In order for the motivators to be effective within the group, one must understand the background history leading up to one’s current beliefs, views, recognition of interpersonal needs. However, it all starts at the very beginning of development. As children are born, they are exposed to party affiliation that dwells within their immediate family. Children will tend to vote and affiliate the way their parents do (Cohen, 2004.) Immediate family beliefs are the first type of influence that relates to politics. As children age, their attitudes are extracted from their parents. The more politically active the family, the higher chance of those attitudes and behaviors will model after the family (Hatemi et al. 2008). As one

why individuals have a hard time expressing themselves in a way that the environment perceives them. Environmental influence also contributes to political party affiliation. Over the past several decades, there has been an increase in party identification based on geographic location and cultural up-bring. The greatest environmental influence on party affiliation starts with the household (Marder et al. 2016). The household environment is where children learn skills and values adopted by their parents, which is seen as the first source of political communication. Once the children leave the household as adults, their affiliation may be shaped by experiences from the outside world (Marder et al. 2016). The more they experience, the more likely they will confirm their beliefs and lean towards affiliating with the corresponding political party. However, party affiliation is not defined as a straight path but rather a two-way street (Fiske et al. 2006). Individuals develop connections and relationships based on the current environmental situations, meaning that there can be spontaneous changes without any type of premature notice. If a political party is not responding in those situations, the people will most likely affiliate less towards that party, which then leads to discounting (Weatherly, 2010). In his research, Weatherly noticed that discounting took place based on social and environmental needs that were not meet by a person’s affiliated party. He concluded that people who affiliated with liberalism discounted more than those affiliating with conservatism. Psychologically, this is evident of delay discounting task by Meyerson and Green (2001). Those who tend to discount more are those who are lacking resources needed for daily functioning. Conservatives tend to wait for a longer return than liberals, which are measured has being more impatient and impulsive. As it relates to the environment, liberals are the ones that advocate for legislation on various programs that can help people who are lacking resources for daily functioning. Some

examples include welfare, social security and disability benefits, free-reduced lunches for children, and healthcare. This concludes that affiliation is shaped based on what the person possesses or lacks in different environmental situations (Fiske et al. 2006). The final influence on affiliating with the respected political party is group identification. There are three factors that are involved with affiliation by group identification. The first factor is the making of in-groups. An in-group is a social group in which a person identifies with psychologically. Individuals tend to gravitate towards people that share the same beliefs and attitudes, which leads to forming in-groups. They may find it meaningful to affiliate themselves based on race, gender, or socioeconomic status (Rouhana, Dwyer, & Vaso 1997). The second factor involves the social identity theory. This theory presents a psychological construct of group belonging. Politicians use the social identity theory to express partisanship, which is used to measure party identification. Identification with a group is much greater when there are things within the group that closely relates with the affiliate (Greene, 2004). Greene’s study measured the level of bias that occurs when determining party identification. He found that levels of bias proved significant for political party identification and ideology, which means that social identity is an important aspect of partisanship, which can lead to strong party affiliation (Greene, 2004). In modern politics, partisanship is very influential in regard to political behavior and predicting attitudes. The last factor involving affiliation within group identification is persuasion. According to a study done by Jose Sanders and his colleagues, group identification can be enacted as a mechanism using characters to reenact various situations. This meant that attitudes and beliefs were tested based on persuasive narratives that play out different positions. In turn, this led to persuading the group towards conditions that seemed “just right” (Sanders et al. 2011). The

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