Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b6zl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T22:27:26.320Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Losing Hurts: The Happiness Impact of Partisan Electoral Loss

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2015

Lamar Pierce ,
Todd Rogers  and
Jason A. Snyder
Lamar Pierce
Affiliation:
Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive Box 1133, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA, e-mail: [email protected]
Todd Rogers
Affiliation:
Harvard Kennedy School, Mailbox 124, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Jason A. Snyder
Affiliation:
Anderson School of Management, UCLA, 110 Westwood Plaza, Cornell Hall, Suite D506, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Partisan identity shapes social, mental, economic, and physical life. Using a novel dataset, we study the consequences of partisan identity by examining the immediate impact of electoral loss and victory on happiness and sadness. Employing a quasi-experimental regression discontinuity model we present two primary findings. First, elections strongly affect the immediate happiness/sadness of partisan losers, but minimally impact partisan winners. This effect is consistent with psychological research on the good-bad hedonic asymmetry, but appears to dissipate within a week after the election. Second, the immediate happiness consequences to partisan losers are relatively strong. To illustrate, we show that partisans are affected two times more by their party losing the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election than both respondents with children were to the Newtown shootings and respondents living in Boston were to the Boston Marathon bombings. We discuss implications regarding the centrality of partisan identity to the self and its well-being.

Keywords

Partisanshippolitical psychologyhappinesselectionsidentitywell-beingObama
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Experimental Political Science , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , Spring 2016 , pp. 44 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © The Experimental Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alesina, A., Di Tella, R., and MacCulloch, R.. 2004. “Inequality and Happiness: Are Europeans and Americans Different?” Journal of Public Economics 88 (9): 2009–42.Google Scholar
Argyle, M. 2003. Causes and Correlates of Happiness. Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology, ch. 18, p. 353. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., and Vohs, K. D.. 2001. “Bad is Stronger than Good.” Review of General Psychology 5 (4): 323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Busse, M., Silva-Risso, J., and Zettelmeyer, F.. 2006. “$1000 Cash Back: The Pass-Through of Auto Manufacturer Promotions.” American Economic Review 96 (4): 1253–70.Google Scholar
Campbell, A., Converse, P. E., Miller, W. E. and, Donald, E. Stokes. 1960. The American Voter. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Card, D., and Dahl, G.. 2011. “Family Violence and Football: The Effect of Unexpected Emotional Cues on Violent Behavior.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 126 (1): 103–43.Google Scholar
Caruso, E., Mead, N., and Balcetis, E.. 2009. “Political Partisanship Influences Perception of Biracial Candidates’ Skin Tone.” Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences 106 (48): 20168–73.Google Scholar
Cohen, G. L. 2003. “Party over Policy: The Dominating Impact of Group Influence on Political Beliefs.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85 (5): 808–22.Google Scholar
Dal Bó, E., Dal Bó, P., and Snyder, J.. 2009. “Political Dynasties.” The Review of Economic Studies 76 (1): 115–42.Google Scholar
Di Tella, R. D., MacCulloch, R. J., and Oswald, A. J.. 2003. “The Macroeconomics of Happiness.” Review of Economics and Statistics 85 (4): 809–27.Google Scholar
Easterlin, R. A. 2003. “Explaining Happiness.” PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100 (19): 11176–83.Google Scholar
Easterlin, R. A. 2006. “Life Cycle Happiness and its Sources: Intersections of Psychology, Economics, and Demography.” Journal of Economic Psychology 27 (4): 463–82.Google Scholar
Gentzkow, M. and Shapiro, J. M.. 2011. “Ideological Segregation Online and Offline.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 126 (4): 1799–839.Google Scholar
Gerber, A. S. and Huber, G. A.. 2009. “Partisanship and Economic Behavior: Do Partisan Differences in Economic Forecasts Predict Real Economic Behavior?” American Political Science Review 103 (3): 407–26.Google Scholar
Gerber, A. S., Kessler, D. P., and Meredith, M.. 2011. The Persuasive Effects of Direct Mail: A Regression Discontinuity based Approach.” Journal of Politics 73 (1): 140–55.Google Scholar
Gilbert, D. T., Lieberman, M. D., Morewedge, C. K., and Wilson, T. D.. 2004. “The Peculiar Longevity of Things not so Bad.” Psychological Science 15 (1): 14–19.Google Scholar
Gillis, J. R. ed. 1996. Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gimpel, J. G. and Schuknecht, J. E.. 2004. Patchwork Nation: Sectionalism and Political Change in American Politics. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Glaeser, E. L. and Ward, B. A.. 2006. “Myths and Realities of American Political Geography.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 20 (2): 119–44.Google Scholar
Granberg, D. and Brent, E.. 1983. “When Prophecy Bends: The Preference–Expectation Link in US Presidential Elections, 1952–1980.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45 (3): 477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, D., Palmquist, B., and Schickler, E.. 2002. Partisan Hearts and Minds: Political Parties and the Social Identities of Voters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hersh, E. 2014. “The Long-Term Effect of September 11 on the Political behavior of Victims’ Families and Neighbors.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 (52): 20959–63.Google Scholar
Imbens, G. W. and Lemieux, T.. 2008. “Regression Discontinuity Designs: A Guide to Practice.” Journal of Econometrics 142 (2): 615–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jost, J. T., Federico, C. M., and Napier, J. L.. 2009. “Political Ideology: Its Structure, Functions, and Elective Affinities.” Annual Review of Psychology 60: 307–37.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D. and Deaton, A.. 2010. “High Income Improves Evaluation of Life but not Emotional Well-Being.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (38): 16489–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahneman, D., Diener, E., and Schwarz, N.. 2003. Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D. and Krueger, A.. 2006. “Developments in the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 20 (1): 3–24.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D. and Tversky, A.. 1979. “Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk.” Econometrica 47 (2): 263–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kermer, D. A., Driver-Linn, E., Wilson, T. D., and Gilbert, D. T.. 2006. “Loss Aversion is an Affective Forecasting Error.” Psychological Science 17 (8): 649–53.Google Scholar
Krizan, Z., Miller, J. C., and Johar, O.. 2010. “Wishful Thinking in the 2008 US Presidential Election.” Psychological Science 21 (1): 140–6.Google Scholar
Langford, D. J., Crager, S. E., Shehzad, Z., Smith, S. B., Sotocinal, S. G., Levenstadt, J. S., Chanda, M. L., Levitin, D. J., and Mogil, J. S.. 2006. “Social Modulation of Pain as Evidence for Empathy in Mice.” Science 312 (5782): 1967–70.Google Scholar
McDermott, R. 2004. “Prospect Theory in Political Science: Gains and Losses from the First Decade.” Political Psychology 25 (2): 289–312.Google Scholar
Pierce, L., Dahl, M. S., and Nielsen, J.. 2013. “In Sickness and in Wealth: Psychological and Sexual Costs of Income Comparison in Marriage.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 39 (3): 359–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pierce, L. and Snyder, J. A.. 2012. “Discretion and Manipulation by Experts: Evidence from a Vehicle Emissions Policy Change.” B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy 13 (3): 1–30.Google Scholar
Preston, S. D. and De Waal, F. B.. 2002. “Empathy: Its Ultimate and Proximate bases.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25 (1): 1–71.Google Scholar
Prior, M. 2007. Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rand, D., Pfeiffer, T., Dreber, A., Sheketoff, R., Wernerfelt, N., and Benkler, Y.. 2009. “Dynamic Remodeling of In-Group Bias during the 2008 Presidential Election.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (15): 6187–91.Google Scholar
Rozin, P. and Royzman, E. B.. 2001. “Negativity Bias, Negativity Dominance, and Contagion.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 5 (4): 296–320.Google Scholar
Settles, I. H. 2004. “When Multiple Identities Interfere: The Role of Identity Centrality.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 30 (4): 487–500.Google Scholar
Shadish, W. R, Cook, T. D., and Campbell, D. T.. 2002. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Singer, T., Seymour, B., O’Doherty, J., Kaube, H., Dolan, R. J., and Frith, C. D.. 2004. “Empathy for Pain Involves the Affective but not Sensory Components of Pain.” Science 303 (5661): 1157–62.Google Scholar
Snyder, J. 2010. “Gaming the Liver Transplant Market.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 26 (3): 546–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, S. G. 2009. “Alternatives to Randomized Experiments.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 18 (5): 299–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Pierce supplementary material

Appendix

Download Pierce supplementary material(File)
File 90.2 KB
Supplementary material: File

Pierce supplementary material

Tables

Download Pierce supplementary material(File)
File 381.9 KB