Trump-coloured glasses

Every time the control of the government changes, people change their view of the world. My favourite chart in that respect is consumer sentiment split between Democrats and Republicans. When there is a Democrat in the White House Democrats’ sentiment is much higher than Republicans’ but as soon as a Republican President takes office, sentiment miraculously improves for Republicans and deteriorates for Democrats.

Consumer sentiment of Democrats and Republicans in the US

Source: University of Michigan Consumer Survey

This irrationality doesn’t just affect the way the economy is assessed, it also affects how we evaluate the motives behind government actions. Democrats tend to think of every action taken by a Trump government as evil. Meanwhile, Republicans tend to think of every action taken by the Biden and Obama administrations as just as evil.

To show this, Christoph Feldhaus and his collaborators have asked 700 US volunteers (350 identifying as Republicans, 350 as Democrats) to participate in a couple of games about risk taking and social interaction. Unbeknownst to them in half the cases a person interrupted the experiment and intervened by restricting their choices and telling them what they can and cannot do.

I know, the nanny state is everywhere, even in online experiments of liberal universities.

The people who were interrupted were then told that the intervention came from a Trump lover or a Trump hater. As you might have guessed, Democrats were not happy at all about interventions from a Trump lover while Republicans didn’t mind at all. Meanwhile, Republicans significantly objected to interventions from a Trump hater while Democrats didn’t mind these interventions.

When asked about the presumed motivation of the intervention, this is what people had to say about interventions from their side of the political divide vs. interventions from the other side.

Beliefs about motives of interventions

Source: Feldhaus et al. (2024)

If a political opponent intervenes in our affairs, it is never about our protection, it is about power and harm. The very same interventions are viewed completely differently depending on whether they originate in your team or from the opposing team. Government regulation and intervention is ok as long as it is my team doing it…