The Influence of Partisan Motivated Reasoning on Public Opinion

• Published in: Political behavior Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 235 - 262
• Main Authors: Bolsen, Toby, Druckman, James N., Cook, Fay Lomax
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer Science+Business Media LLC 01.06.2014; Springer US; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Bipartisanship; Citizens; Cognition & reasoning; Decision Making; Democracy; Energy; Energy policy; Experiments; Identification; Law; Motivation; Motivation research; Original Paper; Partisanship; Political Parties; Political partisanship; Political Science; Political Science and International Relations; Political Science and International Studies; Psychology; Public Opinion; Public opinion surveys; Reasoning; Sociology; Trust; Parties; Motivated reasoning; Partisan trust; Experiment
• ISSN: 0190-9320; 1573-6687
• DOI: 10.1007/s11109-013-9238-0

Political parties play a vital role in democracies by linking citizens to their representatives. Nonetheless, a longstanding concern is that partisan identification slants decision-making. Citizens may support (oppose) policies that they would otherwise oppose (support) in the absence of an endorsement from a political party—this is due in large part to what is called partisan motivated reasoning where individuals interpret information through the lens of their party commitment. We explore partisan motivated reasoning in a survey experiment focusing on support for an energy law. We identify two politically relevant factors that condition partisan motivated reasoning: (1) an explicit inducement to form an "accurate" opinion, and (2) cross-partisan, but not consensus, bipartisan support for the law. We further provide evidence of how partisan motivated reasoning works psychologically and affects opinion strength. We conclude by discussing the implications of our results for understanding opinion formation and the overall quality of citizens' opinions.