political alliances
Definition
Political alliances are cooperative arrangements in which groups or parties coordinate their votes, resources, and collective action to pursue shared political goals, often across lines of identity or interest that otherwise divide them.
In research published in Advances in Psychology, political alliances are examined as coalitions among stigmatized groups whose stability rests on expectations of stigma-based solidarity. Two preregistered studies of women who voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 U.S. presidential election (N = 945 and N = 1,116) measured how betrayed participants felt by pro-Trump voting among Arab Americans, Latino men, and White men. White women felt more betrayed by White men, a pattern the authors read as reflecting relational ties, while Black women felt more betrayed by Latino men than by White men, consistent with violated expectations of cross-group solidarity. Betrayal correlated with lower trust and weaker solidarity intentions toward the betraying outgroup, which the authors take as evidence that perceived defections can weaken cross-group political alliances aimed at challenging societal injustice.
Sources: Shackleford et al. (2026)
Related Terms
- intergroup relations (1 shared article)
- stigma-based solidarity (1 shared article)
- intergroup betrayal (1 shared article)
- collective resistance (1 shared article)
Applications
Political Alliances and Stigma-based Solidarity
Stigma-based solidarity, the coalition of groups that each face societal marginalization, is presented as a foundation for cross-group political alliances, with historical examples such as Jewish American support for Black-led civil rights gains. Such coalitions are described as fragile, since perceived competition and distinctiveness threats can turn shared discrimination into outgroup derogation rather than cooperation.
Sources: Shackleford et al. (2026)
Political Alliances and Betrayal
When members of a marginalized group vote against a coalition's candidate, other marginalized voters can experience the act as betrayal, because it violates expectations of cross-group loyalty. Black women Harris voters felt markedly more betrayed by Latino men's pro-Trump vote than by White men's (d = 0.90), a pattern the authors argue has consequences for the future of cross-group political alliances.
Sources: Shackleford et al. (2026)
Political Alliances and Trust
Feelings of betrayal after the 2024 election were associated with lower trust in the outgroup seen as defecting (r = -.34) and lower individual solidarity intentions toward it (r = -.35). Among White women Harris voters, betrayal also showed a modest positive correlation with support for harmful surveillance targeting Arab Americans, suggesting that perceived defection can erode the cooperative basis of political coalitions.
Sources: Shackleford et al. (2026)
