On January 6, 2021, prior to the U.S. Congress confirmation of president-elect Biden, a large group of protestors stormed the capitol building. Images of the event were hauntingly reminiscent of violent elections and coups in third-world countries.
Considering increasing polarization of people’s attitudes along party lines over the last four years and recent events surround the 2020 election results, an exploration of factors which likely contributed to these events is justified.
This post will summarize the findings of a relevant article published in 2020 citing data gathered from the prior election cycle. Data on this subject for current election cycle is not yet available. Due to similar levels of contention between candidates for the 2016 election, an examination of data from this period is appropriate.
Shwalbe, Cohen, and Ross (2020) published a paper on “objectivity illusion” as it pertained to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Objectivity Illusion is an individual’s belief that their views are rooted in the objective (i.e., fact, reality), and an opposing individual’s views are rooted in subjective (i.e., falsehoods, opinion).
Prior to the 2016 election, these authors enlisted (n= 870) participants who either self-identified as Clinton Supporters, Trump Supporters, or No Political Affiliation.
These authors reported the extent to which individuals displayed objectivity illusion was predictive of how polarized their attitudes toward supporting their candidate became. Supporters of each candidate rated their opposition as being detached from reality and not having the best interest of America at heart. Each group was more likely to label the opposite groups as extremists or even terrorists.
Supporters of each candidate who immersed themselves in biased media coverage on their respective side had beliefs that were more extreme. This is to say that democrats who viewed/ listened to predominantly liberal media tended to become more polarized toward supporting Clinton while Republicans who viewed/ listened to predominantly conservative media tended to become more polarized toward supporting Trump.
Finally, these authors reported that the extent to which participants’ beliefs were polarized along party lines was predictive of their denial of an offer to read a pamphlet about the opposing party’s candidate.
Despite participants’ beliefs that a candidate and political affiliation stands for objectivity or what is rooted in reality, true objectivity, it seems, is lost.
Of a survey of attributes valued by each party, Trump supporters were more likely to identify with patriotism compared to Clinton supporters who were more likely to identify with compassion.
This post is intended to be non-partisan in nature. It serves instead as an attempt to use the findings of one evidence-based study to identify factors which may have contributed to the events surrounding and including the protests in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021.
Schwalbe, M.C., Cohen, G. L. and Ross, L.D. (2020). The objectivity illusion and voter polarization in the 2016 presidential election. PNAS 117 (35) 21218-21229 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912301117
Therapist Speaks 