How Partisans Differ from Independents: The Imaginative Functions of Self-Understanding, Rehearsal, and Relationship Maintenance

Abstract

This study looks at partisan voting in light of imagined interactions (IIs). Imagined interactions are a form of daydreaming that allows us to build scripts for use in our interpersonal relationships. II research has generally come from a functionalist perspective, and continues to prove its value in counseling and therapy, as well as to help us to understand intrapersonal communication in general. It has recently been extended into media effects research (i.e., Madison & Porter, 2012, 2014) and with the present study, voting intentions. We ask how respondents who claim to vote for candidates from certain political parties differ from those who do not in terms of the functions of their IIs. We surveyed college students at a prominent southern university ( N = 227) and collected data on voting intentions and functions of the respondent IIs. We found that both Republicans and Democrats tend to have fewer self-understanding and rehearsal IIs than those who indicated preference for independent candidates. These findings suggest that voting along party lines may be a heuristic, or “mindless” behavior. This study provides a new and exciting element to both the II and political processing bodies of literature, and it is our hope that future researchers also consider II in studies of political psychology and voting.