Why do Americans traditionally lack ideological constraint? Are they ignorant of “what goes with what,” or might they simply be pragmatic? Combining widely used survey questions with an incentivized coordination game, we separately measure individuals' policy positions and normative...

When making political and economic decisions (e.g. voting, donating money to a cause), individuals consider the expectations of groups with which they identify. These expectations are injunctive norms, shared beliefs about appropriate behavior for identity group members, and individuals' choices...

When deciding whether to support a political candidate, policy or cause, individuals are observed to prioritize the expression of their political identities. They even knowingly incur personal costs (a lower wage, strained family relations) to do so. We argue that viewing political identities as...

Bølstad and Dinas (2017) propose a model of spatial voting, based on social identity theory, that suggests supporting a candidate/policy on the other side of the ideological spectrum has a disutility that is not accounted for by common spatial-models. Unfortunately, the data they use are unable...

Social norms are based on expectations of what others believe and do, and so they can shift in response to what trendsetters -- highly visible media or political leaders -- say or do. There is evidence that former President Trump as a trendsetter has weakened norms against expressing...