The Political Power of Negative Motivations

Understanding political participation is vital to learning who is heard in government. Affective polarization—the difference in how partisans feel about their party compared to the other party—has grown over the last forty years, driven mostly by partisans’ increasingly negative feelings toward the other party. Although studies have found a relationship between affective polarization and voting, little research has examined the effects of negative affect on other types of political participation. Using American National Election Studies from 1980 to 2020 and a Pew Research Center survey from 2016, we find that positive partisan affect increased most forms of political participation from 1980 to 1996. Since 2000, negative partisan affect has increased most forms of political participation. Since 2012, negative partisan affect has had a stronger relationship than positive partisan affect on voting, donating, and attempting to influence other people’s votes. Thus, in recent elections, attacking the other party yields greater results than building up one’s own party.