Social support for de-carbonizing the energy system: The role of expressive partisanship

Abstract

The partisan divide on climate policy in the United States is well-documented. Decarbonizing the energy system is key to addressing climate change, and social support for many energy policies is not as starkly partisan as the question of the existence of climate change. In this analysis, we blend insights from social psychology and political science that suggest that partisanship is a social identity with varying salience across individuals. We integrate the concept of expressive partisanship with research on social support for energy policy by arguing that there are potentially two types of expressive partisans—ideological and identitarian expressive. Using data from the Climate Change in the American Mind study, our results imply that partisan polarization on energy and climate policy is driven by identitarian expressiveness, rather than deep ideological differences between liberals and conservative, or Democrats and Republicans.