Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/287469 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Citation: 
[Journal:] Experimental Economics [ISSN:] 1573-6938 [Volume:] 25 [Issue:] 3 [Publisher:] Springer US [Place:] New York, NY [Year:] 2021 [Pages:] 974-1001
Publisher: 
Springer US, New York, NY
Abstract: 
Does political polarization lead to dysfunctional behavior? To study this question, we investigate the attitudes of supporters of Donald Trump and of Hillary Clinton towards each other and how these attitudes affect spiteful behavior. We find that both Trump and Clinton supporters display less positive attitudes towards the opposing supporters compared to coinciding supporters. More importantly, we show that significantly more wealth is destroyed if the opponent is an opposing voter. This effect is mainly driven by Clinton voters. This provides the first experimental evidence that political polarization leads to destructive behavior.
Subjects: 
Spite
Polarization
Experiment
Hillary Clinton
Donald trump
JEL: 
C91
D01
D62
D72
D74
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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