Fifty years ago, few Americans expressed any anger when asked how they would feel if their child married someone from the other party. Today, a third of Democrats—and nearly half of Republicans—would be deeply upset. Americans not only disagree on the issues, they increasingly personally dislike those from the other party. To find out how this deepening divide might affect business issues, a team of researchers conducted four experiments. All four offer evidence that partisanship influences economic behavior. For example, in an experiment conducted in an online labor market, people were willing to work for less money for fellow partisans; this effect is as large as the effect of factors like relevant employment experience. A second study examining consumer behavior found that consumers were almost twice as likely to engage in a transaction when their partisanship matched that of the seller. In a survey, three-quarters of all subjects refused a higher monetary payment to avoid helping the other party— in other words, they preferred to make themselves worse off so that they would not benefit the other party. These results highlight that partisanship for many Americans has gone beyond particular policy beliefs or support for specific politicians. It has become an important social identity.
