Motivated Reasoning in Identity Politics: Group Status as a Moderator of Political Motivations
- Author(s)
- Ming Manuel Boyer, Loes Aaldering, Sophie Lecheler
- Abstract
Western democracies are increasingly defined by identity politics, where politics appeals to both political and other social identities. Consequently, political information processing should depend not just on political identity, but also on other identities, such as gender, race, or sexuality. For any given issue, we argue that the extent to which reasoning is motivated by one’s political identity depends on citizens’ group status in other relevant identities, that is, that political identity more strongly motivates high-status group members than low-status group members for issues of identity politics. A survey experiment (N = 1012) concerning a gender quota policy shows that political identity motivates men more strongly than women, leading to political polarization between left-wing and right-wing men, but not women. This suggests that political motivated reasoning should be addressed differently in situations of identity politics, and urges the consideration of group status as a conditional factor of motivated reasoning.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Communication
- External organisation(s)
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Journal
- Political Studies
- Volume
- 70
- Pages
- 385-401
- No. of pages
- 17
- ISSN
- 0032-3217
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321720964667
- Publication date
- 11-2020
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 508007 Communication science, 508014 Journalism
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 5 - Gender Equality
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/motivated-reasoning-in-identity-politics-group-status-as-a-moderator-of-political-motivations(6c25db17-696f-4c48-9cbd-094e7f53da88).html