The effects of social versus economic ideology similarity information on explicit and implicit political person perception

Abstract

We tested among Democratic and Republican perceivers the relative effects of social vs. economic ideology similarity information about individual members of the opposing party (i.e., information suggesting that a member of the opposing party has similar social or economic ideological views as the perceiver) on explicit and implicit affective polarization in evaluations of these target individuals and on perceived worldview conflict with these individuals. In Studies 1a and 1b, both types of ideology information reduced explicit affective polarization on some measures. Among both Democratic and Republican perceivers, the two types of similarity information were equally effective at reducing overall worldview conflict. Neither type of ideology information shifted implicit affective polarization (Studies 2a and 2b).