Would You Rent to an Out-Partisan? Partisan Bias and Norm Violations in Everyday Judgments

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F25%3A00142326" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/25:00142326 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.ipsa.org/na/event/2025-italian-political-science-association-conference" target="_blank" >https://www.ipsa.org/na/event/2025-italian-political-science-association-conference</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Would You Rent to an Out-Partisan? Partisan Bias and Norm Violations in Everyday Judgments

Original language description

In polarized societies, partisan identities increasingly shape not only political preferences but also interpersonal evaluations and social behavior. This paper investigates the boundaries of affective polarization by asking whether moral considerations and personal self-interest can override partisan bias in everyday decision-making. While existing research documents the pervasiveness of partisan-motivated reasoning, less is known about when and how these biases may be weakened, particularly in interpersonal contexts with tangible consequences. Drawing on two original survey experiments conducted in the Czech Republic—a post-communist democracy characterized by high affective polarization but weak ideological structuring—we examine how citizens evaluate potential tenants when provided with information about their political affiliation and moral behavior. Study 1 uses a conjoint design (n = 2,100), while Study 2 relies on a factorial experiment (n = 2,225), both situating respondents in the role of landlords making rental decisions. By focusing on tenant selection, an economically consequential social interaction, we test whether norm-violating behavior (e.g., theft, bribery) and prosocial behavior (e.g., volunteering, blood donation) moderate the effects of partisan alignment. Our findings reveal an important asymmetry: moral norm violations reduce evaluations more strongly for in-partisans than out-partisans, suggesting that moral breaches by political allies trigger negative reactions that outweighs partisan loyalty. Conversely, moral behavior improves evaluations of out-partisans more than in-partisans, indicating that prosocial behavior may reduce partisan bias by disconfirming negative expectations. These results challenge the idea that partisan identity dominates all other considerations and show that under certain conditions, morally-relvant information and personal interest can disrupt motivated reasoning. This research contributes to debates on democratic resilience by identifying psychological and contextual conditions under which partisan animosity may be attenuated. It also broadens the geographic scope of affective polarization research by offering evidence from Central and Eastern Europe. Our findings suggest that even in polarized environments, citizens remain responsive to moral cues, especially when their own welfare is at stake—providing insight into potential levers for rebuilding trust and cooperation in divided democracies.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50601 - Political science

Project

<a href="/en/project/LX22NPO5101" target="_blank" >LX22NPO5101: The National Institute for Research on the Socioeconomic Impact of Diseases and Systemic Risks</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů