Political Awareness and Sorting

Sorting – the phenomenon that individuals who share an ideological identity and/or social identities increasingly select into the same party – drives affective polarization between Democrats and Republicans in the US. However, how sorting has changed over time and who is more likely to sort along partisan lines is less understood. We argue that choosing the “correct” partisan group to align with one’s social identities requires political awareness, such that the most engaged individuals are most likely to be sorted. Relying on ANES surveys from 1972, we first show that sorting–measured with four different operationalizations–increased in the past few decades. Not all voters were equally likely to sort, however: more-aware individuals are more likely to be sorted. Over time, however, both less- and more-aware voters have become more sorted, mirroring the increasing polarization among elites.