1. How do voters decide? C. Daniel Myers Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
University of Minnesota

2. Party Identification

3. Social Identity: An Example

4. Social Identity: An Example

5. Examples of social identities

6. Partisan Social Identity

7. Partisan Social Identity
Social identification
Provides self-concept and self-worth
Defines “good” and “bad” beliefs and behaviors
Structures relationships with others
Protecting group’s status = protecting self
From threatening information
From threatening “out-groups”

8. How Many Partisans?

9. How Many Partisans?

11. How Many Partisans?
Approximately 90% of Americans identify or lean towards a party
More “independent leaners” than before…
… but “independent leaners” vote in the same was as partisans
True Independents rare, mostly low knowledge/interest
Partisan identification the biggest factor in voting behavior
Note that 80-90

12. Partisanship and Voting (Pew June 2016 Poll)

13. Motivated Information Processing

14. Quick Exercise
Read the article about the candidate who you support or lean towards
List all the thoughts that went through your mind while reading the article

15. Motivated Information Processing
What happens when partisans encounter new information?
Info good for my party? Great!
Info bad for my party? Counter-argue!
Counter-arguing: Searching your memory for reasons to discount information
Two common counter-arguing strategies
“Lesser-of-two evils”
“Issue reprioritization”
Again, look at listed thoughts, do these strategies look like any of your thoughts? Give examples.

16. Partisanship and Voting (Pew June 2016 Poll)

17. Disagreement about Basic Facts

18. How to reason a little better

19. Two Kinds of Motivations
Directional – Motivation to reach/avoid a particular conclusion
Accuracy motivations – Motivation to create an accurate picture of the world

20. What Can Increase Accuracy Motivation?
Paying people!
Norms of good citizenship
Issues that are personally important
Partisan ambivalence

21. Partisan Ambivalence
Having both positive and negative thoughts about your party
Causes
Poor performance in office, particularly economic
Disagreement on key, personal issue
Other behaviors that violate your image of a “good political party”
Opens door for more accuracy-motivated thinking

22. Conclusion

23. Conclusion
Social Identification with a party is the primary driver of voting behavior
Identification drives motivated information processing, which reinforces partisan voting patterns
Accuracy motivations can sometimes lead voters to process information in a way that produces voting for the other side

24. Questions?