Party Affiliation, Partisanship, and Political Beliefs: A Field Experiment

• Published in: The American political science review Vol. 104; no. 4; pp. 720 - 744
• Main Authors: GERBER, ALAN S., HUBER, GREGORY A., WASHINGTON, EBONYA
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.11.2010
• Subjects: Attitudes; Behavior; Behavioral Science Research; Behavioral Sciences; Beliefs; Bias; Candidates; Causal analysis; Citizens; Connecticut; Ethnicity; Experiments; Group Membership; Identity; Laboratories; Laboratory Experiments; Mail questionnaires; Partisanship; Party identification; Political Attitudes; Political behavior; Political campaigns; Political identity; Political parties; Political partisanship; Political science; Predictor Variables; Presidential elections; Presidents; Primaries & caucuses; Primary elections; Racial Identification; Registration; Research Methodology; Research Responses; Resistance (Psychology); Resource Allocation; Sample surveys; Self Actualization; Social identity; Social perception; Social Psychology; Voter behavior; Voter registration; Voter turnout; Voters; Voting; Voting behaviour; Voting intentions
• ISSN: 0003-0554; 1537-5943
• DOI: 10.1017/S0003055410000407

Partisanship is strongly correlated with attitudes and behavior, but it is unclear from this pattern whether partisan identity has a causal effect on political behavior and attitudes. We report the results of a field experiment that investigates the causal effect of party identification. Prior to the February 2008 Connecticut presidential primary, researchers sent a mailing to a random sample of unaffiliated registered voters who, in a pretreatment survey, leaned toward a political party. The mailing informed the subjects that only voters registered with a party were able to participate in the upcoming presidential primary. Subjects were surveyed again in June 2008. Comparing posttreatment survey responses to subjects’ baseline survey responses, we find that those reminded of the need to register with a party were more likely to identify with a party and showed stronger partisanship. Further, we find that the treatment group also demonstrated greater concordance than the control group between their pretreatment latent partisanship and their posttreatment reported voting behavior and intentions and evaluations of partisan figures. Thus, our treatment, which appears to have caused a strengthening of partisan identity, also appears to have caused a shift in subjects’ candidate preferences and evaluations of salient political figures. This finding is consistent with the claim that partisanship is an active force changing how citizens behave in and perceive the political world.