Out-group leadership and subgroup schisms: An examination of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.


The authors examined how electing an out-group leader to an intergroup leadership position affects schism processes within the context of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Study 1 (N = 189) sampled Democrats and Republicans from two states (California, Texas) through MTurk and randomly assigned them to a bogus survey that projected either a Democrat or Republican candidate winning the election. Participants completed measures of identity-subversion, superordinate identification, subgroup identification, and subgroup schism support. Study 2 (N = 68) used a pre—posttest design conducted before and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Results showed that people perceived more identity-subversion when an out-group leader was projected to win (Study 1) or did win the election (Study 2). Whereas Republicans increased schism support after an out-group leader was projected to win (Study 1), Democrats increased their schism support when an out-group leader was elected (Study 2). Identity-subversion partially mediated the effects of out-group leadership election on schism intentions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)