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"Branding partisanship" [2019] ELECD 2136; in Torres-Spelliscy, Ciara (ed), "Political Brands" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 93

Book Title: Political Brands

Editor(s): Torres-Spelliscy, Ciara

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Branding partisanship

Number of pages: 23

Abstract/Description:

This chapter discusses the growing partisan divide in the United States between conservatives and liberals. It notes the findings of cognitive scientists, who have observed some heritability of partisan preferences, and evidence that liberals and conservatives simply perceive the world differently from one another. It further explores how “nature” is reinforced by “nurture,” including the fact that many individuals insulate themselves into self-reaffirming partisan bubbles or information silos. It then touches on how partisans define themselves and how they frequently misperceive the members of the opposing party. Politicians frequently try to microtarget voters with messages to appeal to specific subsets of the electorate. These narrowcast messages can often contradict the political messages of campaign broadcasts. Aspects of microtargeting voters go back to mailing political messages. Today, microtargeted messages can hit voters in their social media feeds. Aggressive microtargeting was particularly used by the Trump campaign in 2016.