The quiet influence of political contamination on your shopping cart

Most of us like to believe we're independent thinkers, immune to outside influence. But just as a recommendation from a friend or a celebrity can boost our interest in a product, new research reveals that our political opponents can shape our preferences too, driving us to dislike even neutral everyday items.

Writing in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Arvid Erlandsson and colleagues from Sweden and the US report that 'political contamination' — when political associations taint how we perceive something — can alter how we feel about everyday items like charities, clothes, and even chocolate. This, they argue, demonstrates that political polarisation influences our lives more significantly than previously thought, even in seemingly trivial situations.

In two initial studies, the researchers tested whether political affiliations could influence attitudes toward neutral products. The first study asked 638 participants to rate 17 pieces of formal clothing worn by faceless models, followed by a survey of their attitudes toward Swedish parliamentary parties. Next, they rated the same clothing, now modelled by well-known politicians. The second focused on food, with 813 participants evaluating various chocolate bars. Initially presented without any political context, the chocolates were then linked to supporters of different political parties.

Both studies revealed that political affiliations coloured participants' opinions. In the first study, participants rated clothing worn by politicians from their least-liked party lower than they had before, while outfits worn by their favorite politicians got a boost. The effect was even stronger among right-leaning participants.

Similar patterns emerged with snacks: chocolates linked to participants' least-liked political party were rated significantly lower than neutral brands; chocolates disliked by participants' favourite political group fared even worse. Together, these findings suggest that our tastes are closely interlinked with our politics — and next, the team explored whether this has any bearing on our real-life decisions.

To explore whether political distancing impacts financial decisions, participants were split into four groups. One group learned that their least-liked political party favoured a specific charity, while another read that their most-liked party did. A third group saw that both their most and least-liked parties supported the same charity, while the final group received no political information. Participants then decided how to distribute small, real-money donations between charities.

Again, political contamination affected how participants felt about different charities — and, this time, their likelihood of donating to them. Participants in the least-liked party condition allocated fewer donations to popular charities than those in the control, most-liked, or bipartisan groups, supporting the idea that knowing a charity is associated with an opposing political group reduces willingness to support it. Interestingly, charities linked to participants' most-liked party received no extra boost, suggesting that political aversion outweighs favouritism.

In a final study, the researchers found that the tendency to avoid out-group preferences became even stronger in public settings, where participants imagined being observed by others who shared their political views.

The team suggests these findings boil down to two factors. First is a drive for "cognitive consistency" — a need for harmony between our beliefs, attitudes, and actions. Associating a product with a disliked political group creates a sense of dissonance, making the product less appealing. Second is impression management: when observed by in-group members, people may feel pressured to signal loyalty by rejecting products associated with the out-group.

Future research could explore whether different product types amplify or mitigate these effects, as well as looking at how much our subtle distancing behaviours really influence our lives long-term. Ultimately, the study highlights just how much our political identities seep into our lives in ways that are far more pervasive — and perhaps more petty — than we might think. 

Read the paper in full:

Erlandsson, A., Nilsson, A., Rosander, J., Persson, R., & Van Boven, L. (2024). Politically Contaminated Clothes, Chocolates, and Charities: Distancing From Neutral Products Liked by Out-Group or In-Group Partisans. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672241298390

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