In this era of extreme partisanship, the people who express the most negativity in their political choices are those we may least expect: independents.
In a new paper, researchers conducted five studies in which they found that independents were more likely than partisans to frame their position in terms of opposition to one party, candidate, message or option rather than in support of the other choice.
"We consistently found that partisans were less likely than independents to have preferences based on negativity." In one study, the researchers used data from the 1968-2020 American National Election Studies, involving 38,759 respondents from across the nation. Participants reported their views of the political parties and the presidential candidates.The researchers subtracted the degree of negativity toward the non-preferred side from positivity toward the preferred side , creating a positive-versus-negative partisanship score.
Both before 2008 and after 2016, negative voting was consistently 10 to 17 percentage points higher among independents than partisans. And since 2016, the majority of independents said they voted against a candidate rather than for the other option. In another study, conducted online, partisans and independents who leaned Democrat or leaned Republican were asked whether they agreed with messages that argued why it was good to support their party or why it was good to oppose the other party.
"But political partisans base their electoral choices more on who or what they like, whereas independents base their preferences to a greater degree on who or what they don't like," he said.
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