partisanship
Definition
Partisanship refers to a person's psychological identification with a political party, an attachment that shapes how political events, leaders, and opponents are perceived and evaluated. It works as a group identity as well as a voting preference, and it colours feelings toward both one's own party and the opposing party.
In research published in Advances in Psychology, partisanship is examined as a predictor of subjective well-being during a period of democratic backsliding in the United States. A five-week longitudinal study recruited self-identified Democrats and Republicans in February and March 2025, the early months of President Trump's second term. It found that Democrats reported lower life satisfaction and happiness than Republicans at every wave, with large effect sizes. Both groups improved modestly over time, but Democrats' trajectories were better described by an initial decline followed by a rebound. Party affiliation also predicted attitudes toward federal actions: Republicans backed the administration's actions, and Democrats backed actions taken against it. Most links between these attitudes and well-being held after controlling for affiliation and demographics, a pattern the authors interpret through system justification, motivated social cognition, and person-environment fit.
Sources: Wu et al. (2026)
Related Terms
- democratic backsliding (1 shared article)
- politics (1 shared article)
- polarization (1 shared article)
- subjective well-being (1 shared article)
Applications
Partisanship and Subjective Well-being
Republicans reported higher happiness and life satisfaction than Democrats across five weekly waves during democratic backsliding. Support for administration actions was associated with higher well-being, and support for oppositional actions with lower well-being. Most of these links held after controlling for party and demographics.
Sources: Wu et al. (2026)
Partisanship and System Justification
System justification is proposed as one explanation for the partisan well-being gap. On this account, conservatives hold stronger system-justifying beliefs that serve a palliative function, while Democrats, who tend to hold weaker system-justifying beliefs, may experience the Trump administration's actions as more threatening.
Sources: Wu et al. (2026)
Partisanship and Political Polarization
The study was conducted during a politically polarized period in the United States. Because the authors were interested in members of opposing parties during this period, they recruited only participants who identified with one of the two major parties.
Sources: Wu et al. (2026)
