Priming Norms to Combat Affective Polarization

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211073319
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2023, Vol. 76(1) 186–199

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129211073319

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Priming Norms to Combat Affective

Polarization

Kevin J. Mullinix

1

and Trent Lythgoe

1

Abstract

The American public has affectively polarized such that partisans increasingly dislike the “other side,”and this may have

deleterious consequences for a representative democracy. Yet, efforts to reduce partisan hostility arrive at mixed

results. We propose a new approach that involves strategically priming civic norms with language tailored to a target

audience. We argue that emphasizing group-based civic norms that invoke an “obligation to others”can reduc e out-party

animus. We test this approach on an important subgroup: U.S. military service members. Lik e the broader American

public, service members have unfavorable feelings toward the opposing party, and these feelings appear to have become

more negative in recent years. We use a survey experiment to demonstrate that priming an obligation to others civic

norm attenuates affective polarization. Our study advances public opinion research on an understudied subgroup of the

population, but more importantly, the theoretical argument has implications for addressing polariz ation and partisan

discord among the mass public and other subgroups.

Keywords

affective polarization, civic norms, partisanship, military, priming

While scholars debate the extent to which Americans are

divided in their policy opinions (Abramowitz 2010;

Fiorina et al. 2008), there is considerable evidence that the

mass public has “affectively”polarized such that partisans

increasingly dislike the “other side”(Abramowitz and

Webster 2016). A substantial literature analyzes the ori-

gins of affective polarization and its adverse consequences

(e.g., Iyengar et al. 2012;Iyengar et al. 2019;Rogowski

and Sutherland 2016). Affective partisan divisions lead to

prejudice against opposing partisans (Lelkes and

Westwood 2017) and can color apolitical decisions,

such as economic choices (McConnell et al. 2018)and

evaluations of university scholarship applications

(Iyengar and Westwood 2015). Further, there are broader

repercussions of partisan discord for governance in a

representative democracy. Levendusky (2017) suggests

that affective polarization “makes governance more dif-

f‌icult”(59), and Iyengar and Krupenkin (2018) assert that

the implications for “political accountability are cause for

concern”(214).

Research on tactics to depolarize the mass public has

mixed results. Some strategies fail to reduce affective

partisan divisions (e.g. Levendusky 2018), and other

efforts, though more successful, may not resonate with

particular subgroups. For example, Levendusky (2017)

uses national samples to demonstrate that priming a

common ingroup identity—“Americans’national identi-

ty”—attenuates affective polarization, but this approach

may not constrain partisan animus among individuals who

already have a heightened sense of American identity.

We offer and test a distinct theoretical approach rooted

in group-based civic norms that emphasize an “obligation

to others”to address affective polarization. We argue that

priming civic norms, “the shared set of expectations about

the citizen’s role in politics”(Dalton 2008, 78), can

mitigate affective polarization, and this is particularly

effective when norms are tailored to a target audience and

invoke an obligation to others in the context of politics and

partisanship. Emphasizing civic norms reduces the effects

of partisan endorsements and increases willingness to

discuss politics with opposing partisans (Mullinix 2018).

Heightening civic norms stimulates open-minded

1

Political Science, University of Kansas College of Liberal Arts and

Sciences, Lawrence, KS, USA

Corresponding Author:

Kevin J. Mullinix, Political Science, University of Kansas College of Liberal

Arts and Sciences, 1541 Lilac Ln, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.

Email:kevin.mullinix@gmail.com