Could I Ever Lose Your Support? Unconditional Political Bias in the American Public

Partisan bias poses serious challenges for democracies. Yet scholars rarely study the determinants of partisan bias directly, and without regard for its most extreme manifestations. We propose that extreme partisan bias in favor of a political elite is best defined as unconditional support, wherein a citizen’s support will persist regardless of that leader’s actions. Using nationally representative data, we first explore individual-level correlates of partisans’ unconditional political bias (UPB). Second, we engage literature on injunctive norms to identify distinct pathways toward mitigating UPB. Using three survey experiments (n of 4,632), we find that both Republicans and Democrats substantially reduce their own UPB when they are made aware of others’ political bias, though not for hypothetical outcomes. In all, our results contribute to our understanding of partisan bias in its most extreme form and highlight the role that social norms can play in shaping the conditionality of citizens’ support for elites.