You’re Making Us Look Bad: Can Partisan Embarrassment Dampen Partisanship and Polarization?

Partisan elites and members of the public often have attitudes or engage in behavior that could embarrass copartisans. We examine this occurrence—what we call partisan embarrassment—by investigating how much partisans report feeling this embarrassment, what types of scenarios embarrass partisans, what types of partisans feel this embarrassment, and what the political ramifications of partisan embarrassment could be. We expect that when a copartisan engages in embarrassing behavior, copartisans will want to distance themselves from their party to preserve their own status. We find that about 53.9 percent of American partisans experience partisan embarrassment, but it is highly variable across individuals and scenarios and has limited influence on partisanship, polarization, private or public in-party support, or views about party competence. Consistent with work highlighting the importance and stability of partisan attachments, our findings suggest that partisans are unlikely to punish their party, even when it embarrasses them.