Negative partisanship

[5] Cross-national studies indicate that negative partisanship undermines public satisfaction with democracy, which threatens democratic stability.

[3] The phenomenon of negative partisanship was further exacerbated during the 2016 election, in which both major candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, received record low "feeling thermometer" ratings in a Pew Research Center study.

[9] However, some like David Wasserman of The Cook Political Report have challenged this view, noting the phenomenon of Obama-Trump voters, or Americans who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and/or 2012 and Donald Trump in 2016.

[1] Since the American National Election Studies created the feeling-thermometer scale in 1968, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have been the most unpopular major-party candidates.

[1] Even more so voters hate the opposing party candidate even more, which has led to an increase of negative partisanship in recent years.

The rise of tv, radio, and internet news outlets has created a fragmented and polarized media landscape.

This has enabled individuals to choose to watch ideologically aligned news sources that often depict the opposing party in a negative manner.

Utilizing the Big Five personality framework (Openness to New Experiences, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability), scholars have made a connection between certain traits and the impact that they have on partisanship.

[1] The American National Election Studies revealed that higher levels of extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability are less likely to be negative partisans.

According to Henri Tajfel, members of a group must first gain a positive sense of identity before they can associate negative feelings with an outgroup.