%0 Journal Article
%T Identity Sorting and Political Compromise
%A Nicholas T. Davis
%J American Politics Research
%@ 1552-3373
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1532673X18799273
%X In this article, I explore the relationship between sorting and the value that individuals assign to compromise. Analyzing four separate, nationally-representative surveys from 2007 to 2016, I show that a reliable asymmetry among partisans exists regarding their preference for political leaders who compromise. Among persons with right-leaning identities, high levels of overlap between partisanship and ideology undercut the professed desirability of compromise and amplify the association between compromise and selling out one¡¯s principles. However, when individuals are asked about the specific extent to which one¡¯s ¡°side¡± deserves greater deference in the policymaking process, differences between persons with left- and right-leaning identities disappear. Well-sorted individuals are uniformly unwilling to distribute policymaking demands equally. Although this disconnect is emblematic of the general tension between abstract principles and episodic behavior (or ¡°practicing what you preach¡±), it also highlights how the introduction of material threat may challenge expressive commitments to lofty ideals
%K compromise
%K sorting
%K social identities
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1532673X18799273