On the Defensive: Identity, Language, and Partisan Reactions to Political Scandal
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
We investigated how individuals judge politicians embroiled in scandal. Drawing on social identity and realistic group conflict theory, we predicted that beyond an overall ingroup bias, partisans would be particularly forgiving of in-party politicians who denied or justified their misconduct rather than apologize for it. By insisting that they did nothing wrong, these politicians defend the public image of their party and signal their commitment to partisan goals. We find qualified support for this prediction across three experiments. Participants did not respond negatively to in-party politicians who apologized but did react more positively to those who denied or justified wrongdoing (relative to silence). These accounts worked only for in-party politicians and were more effective for those whose misconduct furthered their party’s agenda or whose seat was high-status or pivotal for party goals. In intergroup contexts like politics, people may accept explanations for misconduct that they would otherwise find offensive.
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Cited by
Still being checked.
- Authors
- Ekstrom, P. D., Gonzales, M. H., Williams, A. L., Weiner, E., & Aguilera, R.
- Affiliations
- University of Nebraska–Lincoln (US)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Beech Acres Parenting Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA
- Relay Graduate School of Education (US)
- The University of Texas at El Paso (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ekstrom, Pierce D.
- Venue
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2024-05-06
- Volume
- 51
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 2323-2340
- ISSN
- 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7433
- OpenAlex
- W4396677028
- Semantic Scholar
- 19f2c4503c9ce57e7f8722b621fe61ec8bf878e6
- Cited by
- 3
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1
- FWCI
- 2.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Power and Status Dynamics
- Keywords
- political scandal, in-group favoritism, social identity theory, realistic group conflict theory, apology, political image, party goals
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Language, Male, Politics, Social Identification, Young Adult
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