Seeing the Other Side: Reducing Political Partisanship via SelfAffirmation in the 2008 Presidential Election

The 2008 presidential election brought the partisan divide between U.S. Republicans and Democrats to the forefront. In such contested situations, people who identify with the parties and their candidates experience pressure to adhere to their group’s core beliefs and behaviors. This research hypothesized that providing individuals a chance to affirm their self-integrity would relieve some of this pressure and facilitate greater openness to the opposition. In the 2 days prior to the 2008 election, Democrats (N = 50) and Republicans (N = 60) who affirmed their self-integrity by writing about important personal values (versus those who did not self-affirm) were less driven by partisan preferences in their evaluations of Barack Obama’s debate performance, more favorable to opposition candidates, and more generally open to alternative viewpoints. Additionally, 10 days after the election, affirmed Republicans thought Obama would make a better president than did nonaffirmed Republicans. Discussion centers on how motivational factors can exacerbate—and attenuate—the divide between “red” and “blue” America.