Friday Night Politics: Football Bans and Intraparty Political Gender Dynamics

ABSTRACT Objective To determine the effects of elite partisan cues on support or opposition to a hypothetical ban on tackle football for youth players. Methods Nationally representative survey experiment of 1800 American Adults, conducted by YouGov in 2019, utilizing four potential treatments: control, partisan Democratic cue, partisan Republican cue, and a bipartisan cue. Results Partisans respond to elite signaling about the issue. We find that Republican women, in particular, are most responsive to both partisan and bipartisan messages about football bans from political elites. Conclusion While survey experiments can offer a limited picture of public opinion in the informational space and in time, Republican women appear to be the most persuadable by a partisan cue about this issue. Further research could suss out whether this is unique to gendered issues or is a specific feature of women's Republican partisanship.