Research suggests that your own preference for a certain chocolate brand can be changed by the sight of a political leader you dislike enjoying it. – Photo: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa
Families were divided, brother fought brother, children denounced parents, everyone was a spy: Anyone from a country with a civil war or a Stalin or Mao-type purge in its 19th or 20th century history would have heard such laments while growing up.
But warnings from history often go unheeded, and more recently, political polarization in countries like the US, Spain and Argentina has reached such a nadir that some on social media have advocated shunning even next-of-kin who vote for the other or 'wrong' side.
And yet ideological tribalism appears to be getting even pettier, with some people apparently revising their opinion of a favourite brand of chocolate upon finding out it is also liked by those perceived as political opponents.
It sounds like a joke. But it is not, according to a survey by researchers at Linköping University in Sweden, who asked over 800 people to rank "eight well-known chocolate brands" and then give their "political stance."
When people were told that "political opponents" liked the same brand of chocolate, then that brand was deemed "significantly less appealing" in a second-round survey.
"People distance themselves not just from out-group partisans or policies but also from completely neutral and apolitical consumer products that have been 'contaminated' simply by being preferred by the political out-group," the researchers said, in a paper published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Research suggests that your own preference for a certain chocolate brand can be changed by the sight of a political leader you dislike enjoying it. – Photo: Christin Klose/dpa
And it is not just with sweet products that people could risk ending up chocolonely. The researchers found that clothes not only "maketh the man," as the quote from Hamlet goes, but also that the politics of the person wearing them influences attitudes towards the clothes.
First, the researchers had around 600 people give their views on various outfits worn by people whose heads or faces were hidden in photos.
After outlining their views on Swedish politics and its array of parties across the left-right spectrum, the identities of those wearing the clothes were revealed.
All were politicians, and yes, some participants revised their take on outfits they liked at first if they found it had been worn by a politician they disliked. – dpa
