Toeing the party line: Identity misclassification and behavorial inflexibility in political decision making.

Abstract

Although social role norms serve as helpful guides to appropriate social behavior, they can also limit people's behavioral flexibility. When role violators expect to be mistaken as a member of a devalued out-group (i.e., identity misclassification), they experience negative affect. However, if role violators forestall identity misclassification by disclaiming stigmatized status, then they should experience less discomfort violating group norms. In the current set of studies, I applied the identity misclassification framework to people's political decision making. In Study 1, Republicans who were randomly assigned to endorse an out-of-party candidate experienced threats to belonging and coherence. Wearing a ''Proud to be a Republican'' shirt reduced participants' experience of coherence threat, yet did little to quell their belonging threat. In Studies 2 and 3, the political affiliation of candidates influenced Republicans' choice of political candidate and evaluation of political speeches, respectively, regardless of their ability to disclaim. Discussion focuses on the limited utility of disclaimers for political partisans.