Rejoining the Cult: Understanding and Reducing Blatant Political Bias

Abstract

Partisan bias poses serious challenges for democracies. Yet scholars rarely study the determinants of partisan bias directly. Further, despite individual-level bias existing in degrees, extant scholarship has yet to systematically study partisan bias in its most extreme form. In this study, we posit that such bias can be defined as support that is unconditional. We refer to this as “blatant bias” and contend that it represents a theoretically distinct category of partisan bias. Using nationally representative data, we first explore individual-level correlates of blatant bias. Second, we present two pre-registered survey experiments to examine whether exposure to blatant bias coming from the opposing party affects blatant bias in favor of their own party. We find that such exposure significantly lowers the likelihood of engaging in blatant bias. Our results thus indicate that extreme partisan bias is both predictable as well as more malleable than often assumed.