Expressive Partisanship: Campaign Involvement, Political Emotion, and Partisan Identity

TLDR

Party identification is central to American political behavior, but scholars debate whether it is primarily instrumental or expressive. The study develops an expressive model of partisan identity and tests it against an instrumental explanation of campaign involvement. Four studies were conducted to compare the expressive model with the instrumental model. The expressive model better predicts campaign activity than instrumental measures, and strongly identified partisans exhibit heightened anger or enthusiasm in response to party threats or reassurances, whereas ideological consistency does not elicit comparable emotions, highlighting expressive identity’s role in driving campaign involvement.

Abstract

Party identification is central to the study of American political behavior, yet there remains disagreement over whether it is largely instrumental or expressive in nature. We draw on social identity theory to develop the expressive model and conduct four studies to compare it to an instrumental explanation of campaign involvement. We find strong support for the expressive model: a multi-item partisan identity scale better accounts for campaign activity than a strong stance on subjectively important policy issues, the strength of ideological self-placement, or a measure of ideological identity. A series of experiments underscore the power of partisan identity to generate action-oriented emotions that drive campaign activity. Strongly identified partisans feel angrier than weaker partisans when threatened with electoral loss and more positive when reassured of victory. In contrast, those who hold a strong and ideologically consistent position on issues are no more aroused emotionally than others by party threats or reassurances. In addition, threat and reassurance to the party's status arouse greater anger and enthusiasm among partisans than does a threatened loss or victory on central policy issues. Our findings underscore the power of an expressive partisan identity to drive campaign involvement and generate strong emotional reactions to ongoing campaign events.