Derogating Dissent: Partisan Differences in Responses to Ingroup Dissent

Abstract We examined in two studies whether Republicans, Democrats, or the extremes of both parties are more intolerant of partisan ingroup dissenters- fellow party members who express disagreement with a party stance. In Study 1, we examined intolerance towards partisan ingroup dissent when the dissenter expresses disagreement over matters of policy. In Study 2, we investigated whether results from Study 1 generalize to situations where the dissenter is merely correcting a factual error. Our results suggested that Democrats are more intolerant than Republicans of ingroup members who dissent over matters of policy, whereas the extremes of both parties are more intolerant of ingroup members who correct factual errors made by fellow party members. We provided further evidence that the relationship between identification with the Democrat party and intolerance was mediated by perceived moral superiority, and the relationship between partisan extremity and intolerance was mediated by the degree of value-conflict with the dissenter.