The Role of Regional Identities on Depolarizing Partisans

Previous research has shown that when priming national identities, partisans report less overall polarized opinions and behaviors. In my research, I assessed whether regional identities, specifically the Floridian identity, could have similar impacts of reducing affective polarization among opposing partisans and could encourage opposing partisans to talk to each other. By priming participants with their Floridian identity, I assessed whether their state identity impacted their assignment of positive and negative traits to opposing partisans, the likeliness of discussing political issues with opposing partisans, and whether the participants reported less polarized feelings between opposing political sides. Overall, I found that regional identities had no impact on partisans’ willingness to discuss political issues with the other side and had no impact on affective polarization.