Republicans and Democrats Don't Even Like Each Other's Faces, Study Finds

Republicans and Democrats do not even like each other's faces, scientists have found.

A study, conducted by scientists at the University of North Carolina and published in the journal PLOS ONE, found that a person's first impression of a stranger's face was strongly influenced by their political partisanship.

Previous research shows that ideological polarization is increasing in the U.S., meaning those with differing political views are less likely to get along in social situations. But the link between initial face impressions and political partisanship had not been studied, until now.

"Our research suggests that partisan biases do not only emerge when people are effortfully reasoning about politics. Our work shows that they appear in basic aspects of person perception—first impressions of faces," co-author Brittany Cassidy of the University of North Carolina told Newsweek.

The scientists conducted two experiments involving 275 undergraduate college students.

In the first test, participants were given the photographs of two strangers and asked to decide which appeared the most likable. For some photos, participants were told truthfully whether they were Republican or Democrat. Then in other cases, the labels were either false or removed altogether.

Participants' first impressions of the strangers were strongly swayed by whether the stranger was Republican or Democratic, scientists found. This was the case even if the stranger's political label was false.

In the second experiment, participants assessed the likeability of faces before and after their political opinions were revealed. After it was revealed, scientists found that participants changed their impressions.

"Americans are becoming increasingly polarized regarding their political partisanship, to the extent that hate of opposing partisans has been shown to be stronger than liking for your own partisan group," Cassidy said. "Here, we were interested in examining if polarization based on partisanship has become so ingrained that it affects really basic aspects of how we think about people. First impressions of faces are important predictors of how people select people with whom to approach and interact. We reasoned that if partisanship polarizes these first impressions, it would limit opportunities for cross-partisan interaction, which could perpetuate intergroup tension."

These findings could help future research into how people with differing political ideologies interact.

"Because these partisan-based biases parallel biases from perceived threat, it suggests that partisan biases emergent in first impressions may limit opportunities for cross-partisan interaction," Cassidy said. "This work may inform future research because it suggests that to calm our polarized political climate, we need to examine interventions that affect basic aspects of how we think about others—not just more complex reasoning about people or political differences."

Other previous research into this area showed that partisanship strongly affects attraction in online dating contexts.

Cassidy said these new findings support this implication, but they also suggest that any kind of potential interaction may be helped or hindered by partisanship.

"Our findings suggest that even a hint of partisanship—without any other information about it—is enough to change basic aspects of how we think about people. People rely on first impressions of faces to decide with whom to approach, cooperate, form friendships, and form relationships. The fact that these impressions can be shifted so easily by partisan labels suggests that there may be constraints on cross-partisan interactions before people even get a chance to know each other."

References

Cassidy BS, Hughes C, Krendl AC (2022) Disclosing political partisanship polarizes first impressions of faces. PLoS ONE 17(11): e0276400. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276400