Partisan animosity and protest participation in the United States

Abstract In the United States, partisans are more likely to protest than other citizens. This study compares the relative strength of two explanations for why. One contends that partisanship, as a group identity, may lead people to protest in support of their party’s interests. Another suggests that partisans may perceive a greater threat from the opposing party’s actions, leading them to protest more in response. Drawing from research on affective polarization, this study favors the threat-based explanation. Three studies of surveys fielded between 2014 and 2022 highlight the link between partisan animosity—or hostile feelings toward the opposing party—and protest participation. Studies 1 and 2 use panel data to show that citizens who hold greater partisan animosity at one point are more likely to report having protested in the years to follow. This effect is comparable to that of their concern about the issues being protested. Study 3 further shows that protest participation is more common in communities where partisan tensions run high. Meanwhile, across models, the individual-level effect of partisan identity on protest was null or negative. These findings point social movements researchers toward threat-based explanations of how partisanship motivates protest and highlight an additional dimension to the relationship between partisan animosity and political participation.