PoliPsych Midterm: S1 Groups and Politics

Views of Identity in Political Science: Michigan School Approach

• social identities influence political Behavior

• Partisanship is a social identity and can skew our understanding of the political world

Views of Identity in POlitical Science: Instrumental Partisanship

voters make rational policy choices based on observstions and economic interests

Theoretical approaches to identity formation: Evolutionary Perspective

survival and reproduction; need for group cohesion

Theoretical approaches to identity formation: Categorization and Group Salience

self categorized theory

Theoretical approaches to identity formation: Realistic Group Interest

Real or percieved inequalities between groups drive behaviors

Theoretical approaches to identity formation: Social Identity Theory

includes protection of group status or esteem

4 Theoretical approaches to identity formation

• Evolutionary

• Categorization + Group Salience

• Realistic Group Identites

• Social Identity Theory

Partisanship + Ideology” Social identity vs issue based decision

depends on political context and degree of polarization

Partisanship and Ideology: Social Identity

partisanship is a social identity

Partisanship and Ideology: Symbolic Ideology

“liberal” or “conservative”

Partisanship and Ideology: Operational Ideology

specific attitudes and beliefs that may not align with every label

Multiple Identites

• Any individual can and does hold multiple social identites at any given time

• cross cuttingness

• identity complexity

Affective Polarization

• Social sorting —> in-group + outgroup emotions

• Robber’s cave

Polarization: Effects on Emotions and Actions

• identites guide emotions and behaviors

• threat to status of the group

• intergroup emotion theory

Reducing Animosity: Contact Theory

contact between groups can reduce prejudice and bias

Reducing Animosity: Superordinate Identity

• Larger identity of sub-groups

• ex— law student + psych student are both university students

4 Ways of Reducing Animosity

• contact theory

• superordinate identity

• elite rheotric

• social norms

Objective Social Sorting

• racial, religious, ideological groups and relations to partisan identity

• degree to which the respondent identifies with each of these groups

Subjective Social Sorting

• perceptions fo sorting among one’s in-group and party memers

• “of people who are evangelicals how many would you say are republicans”

• how closely do you associate with the following groups within the party

Subjective and Objective forms of social sorting increase ______

in-group partisan identity

Partisanship is related to ____ and _____

• Subjective: indvidiual level comprehension of party—group alliances

• Objective: psychological closeness to the aligned groups

Republicans are more responsive to the alignment of their ____

• party associated groups

• the most corss-cutting identities are more detrimental to in-party allegiance than they are among democrats

Partisanship as a Social Identity: Self categroization and Depersonalization

• process by which gorup identifiers come to percieve themselves as similar to the prototypical identity gorup member

• adopt beliefs and behaviors to conform to the prototype

Partisanship as a social identity: Highly divergent prototypes

• Liberal Democrats and COnservative Republicans present highly divergent protytpes along the lines of race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation

Expressive Partisanship: Instrumental Partisanship

Running tally o party performance, ideological beliefs, and proximally to the party in terms of one’s preferred policies

Expressive partisanship

enduring identity strengthened by social affiliations to gender, relgious and ethnic/racial groups

Defining Gender: Bundle of Constructs (Tate et al: 2014)

• birth assigned gender

• current gender identity

• gender roles and expectations

• gender social presentation

• gender evaluations

Defining Gender: Collective Identity

• feeling a sense of identity with like group memebrs that preceds politicized identity

• feelings that the political fate of one’s gender is linked

Defining Gender: Cognition + Characteristics

both indvidiual-leel cognition of expression and how people view each other with gendered social structure

Theories of Gender: Social Role Theory

• social roles based off gender lead to gendered behavior

  • stems from biological strengths and how that’s arranged into division of labor

• Men —> Agentic Traits (agression + ambitious)

• Women —> Comunal Traits (empethetic + caring)

Theories of Gender: Biological Explanations

• Sex hormones + Brain composition leads to gendered behavior

• However, recent studies show more similarities than difference AND when differences are found, there’s no relationship between such and behavioral differences

• Little evidence that the biologicy of sex correlates to gendered behaviors

Theories of Gender: Evolutionary Theory

• gendered differences result from physical aspects + responses to unique challenges

• women —> selectively choosing a mate

• men—> seek domination over other groups

Theories of Gender: Group Identity

• emotional attachments to groups — belonging and self destinctiveness

• gender — social + political — allows poeple to define themselves

• gendered - based self categorization when gender is slaient/situationally relevant

Theories of Gender: Gender Socialization—Social Learning Theory

• modeling behaviors of other males/females

• reinforcement from others when they conform

Theories fo Gender: Gender Socialization —Cognitive Development Theory

develop stereotypes conceptions from wha they see, develop gender schema, and gendered characteristics

Gender effects on political attitudes + behavior

• political experience differences (socialization, running for office, engagement)

• identity with women — feminists more likely to participate

• women socialized to be less interested —> gaps in political knowledge

Gendered Behavior of Leaders + Evaluations

• Elites act consistently with their gender identity

  • prioritize issues on gender-related goals

• Gender sterotypes determine how leaders are judged

Ondercrine (2020)

• white women voted for trump in 2016+2020 election

• stability in gender gap —women’s preferences grounded in partisan attachment

• women make up a substantial portion of both parties, but there is a variation based on race + socioeconomic status

The Idea of Race

• 19th century —> race = different kinds

• 20th century —> race is a scientific category

• racial differences — assumed to be inheritable

• now we k now genetic diversity results from indvidual variation within populations

Racial Categories as Psychological Entities

concepts — mental representations of the outside world

Race remains real in American life + is consequential because ___

• inscribed in american law

• entrenched in social experience

• imprinted on economic life

• influential in our politics

Nature of Prejudice

• Represents a tendency on white to act in opposition of black

• Enemity — expressed through negative emotions and denigrating beliefs

• Prejudice is

  • categorical

  • takes natural kinds for granted

  • dimensional

McClain et al (2009) : Group Identification

psychological sense of belonging or attachment to a social group

McClain et al (2009) : Group Consciousness

• in group identification politicized by a set of ideological beliefs about one group’s social standing

• collective action is the best means by which a gorup can improve its status

Racial Consciousness : Brown 1931

• Tendency towards sentiment + ideological idenitifcation with a racial group

• those who are race conscious link identity to the gorup

• people aware of inequality want to see their social and political status improve

Racial Consciousness: Ferguson 1938

• a collective sentiment in which race bcomes the object of loyalty +idealization

• characteristics of oppressed minority groups and takes the form of a feeling of solidarity among group members

Linked Fate

• cognitive hueristic grounded in social identity theory

• measures— will it affect you a lot, or not very much

Jardina + Piston (2022) : Dehumanizing Attitudes

• animalistic — lack rationality

• positioned along a continuum

• extended to which a group is viewed as less than fully human may vary

Jardina + Piston Conclusions

• overt + blatent form of racism is far from being a relic of the past

• dehumaizing attitues can be a powerful political force (Trump)