Want to Turn a Friend into a Foe? Reveal Your Political Differences
Friendships are important. Many people report that their friendships are their most important relationships, even more important than family relationships, and friends are a key contributor to mental health and well-being. Friendships are not always satisfying, however. Friends can also be a source of disappointment, anger, or anxiety. Given that most friendships are initially positive and satisfying, what can cause a friendship to move in a negative direction?
Broadly speaking, the answer often involves differences. Similarity is a strong predictor of friendship success, and some differences between friends may damage or even end the relationship. We investigated the link between similarity and friendship in the domain of political views. In light of anecdotal reports that the 2016 Presidential election damaged friendships after people learned who their friends voted for, we were interested in what happens when people discover political differences in a friendship. We were especially interested in examining this effect in the context of U.S. politics, where there has been a growing divide between Republicans and Democrats.
Political orientation—whether defined as one’s political group affiliation (are you a Republican, Democrat, or Independent?) or as where one stands on the conservative to liberal spectrum—doesn’t always come up in friendships, at least not right away. People may guess but not actually confirm their friends’ political views. Therefore, discoveries of a friend’s political orientation often occur later in the relationship. Of course, in general, people prefer to develop close relationships with others who share similar values or belong to similar social groups as they do, and friendships between people belonging to different social groups—“cross-group friendships”—are less common.
Political cross-group friendships are particularly interesting because, unlike most cross-group friendships in which the cross-group nature of the friendship is known from the beginning, political orientation may not be obvious. As a result, when a person who self-identifies as a Democrat or Republican discovers that a friend identifies with the other party, the friendship suddenly becomes cross-political at that point. We were interested in what people expect to happen upon discovering that a friendship is cross-political. Would such a discovery change people’s perceptions of the friend and of the relationship?
We recruited participants residing in the United States who identified as either Democrats or Republicans and asked them to read four descriptions of individuals who varied in terms of their relationship status (they were either friends or potential friends) and group membership (they identified as having either liberal or conservative views). So, each participant read about a friend with liberal political views, a friend with conservative political views, a potential friend with liberal views, and a potential friend with conservative views. After reading each vignette, participants were asked about their positive and negative emotions, attitudes toward the friend, trust toward the person, hopefulness that the friendship will last, and satisfaction with the friendship.
Overall, participant’s reactions—including trust in the other person, hope that the relationship will last, emotions, and attitudes—were more negative in response to people who were members of another political party than members of their own party (that is, to political out-group versus in-group members). Specifically, participants’ expected that their reactions would be most positive if they discovered that an established friend shared their political in-group membership, followed by a potential friend who was a member of their party, then an established friend who was a member of the other party, and lastly a potential friend who was a member of the other party.
One intriguing aspect of this pattern is that participants expected that they would react more positively toward a stranger than an established close friend who identified with the other political party.
Moreover, these differences were larger among people who held more negative attitudes toward the political out-group. This means that prejudice toward political out-groups has the potential to negatively affect people’s close relationships. People are not only less likely to form relationships with others who hold different political views, but they are also less interested in maintaining their existing cross-political friendships.
Interestingly, these results suggest that similarities and differences in political orientation among friends can play an important role in how friendships unfold. Keep in mind, though, that we focused on how people initially expected to react when they first discovered the other person’s political group membership, and it is possible that people’s reactions to such discoveries might change over time. Nevertheless, our findings highlight that attitudes toward political out-groups can play a significant role in people’s perceptions of their interpersonal relationships with people who do and do not share their political affiliations.
For Further Reading
Buliga, E., & MacInnis, C. (2020). “How do you like them now?” Expected reactions upon discovering that a friend is a political out-group member. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 37(10–11), 2779–2801. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407520939191
Elena Buliga is a doctoral student at the University of Calgary who studies cross-group friendships and pro-outgroup behaviors.
Cara C. MacInnis is an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary. She examines potential means by which people can overcome barriers to positive intergroup relations and reduce prejudice.