Partisans Overestimate Their Side’s Intolerance

Abstract Political partisans tend to overestimate how extreme, intolerant, and undemocratic their opponents are.Do people also misjudge the views of other members of their own party? If so, what are the consequences of these co-partisan misperceptions? We examined these questions across four online studies (N = 7,082), including two preregistered experiments and three nationally representative samples. Both Democrats and Republicans thought their co-partisans held more extreme attitudes than the average ingroup member actually did (Studies 1a-2b). Misperceptions were largest for beliefs about political intolerance, such as opposition to bipartisan cooperation and friendships. Providing corrective information shifted perceptions of co-partisans and increased political tolerance among the most inaccurate participants (Study 3). Moreover, participants who perceived their fellow partisans as more extreme beliefs felt more apprehensive about sharing their opinions and did so less often (Study 4). These findings suggest American partisans overestimate co-partisans’ political extremity and these misperceptions may encourage political self-silencing.