089 -- Group Identities in American Politics

Derived from the expansive field of political psychology, group identities represent a salient subject in the matter of American politics. Group identities occur across a wide range of sociodemographic factors, including income, gender, race, and partisanship, to name a few key examples. Upon establishing group identities, people make notable political alignments in accordance with their groups. This paper will consider the psychological underpinnings of peoples’ group identifications and provide an illustration of how they ultimately manifest themselves in American politics, largely by considering how they create candidate, policy, or ideological preferences.