Party over Product: People Exaggerate the Influence of Political Cues on Others’ Consumption Preferences

Consumers often confront offerings that are associated with political cues. For example, a coffee company may tout its liberal relations with employees or suppliers, or may hang bathroom signs that promise to please liberals. In this research, we demonstrate that consumers overestimate how much these partisan cues influence others’ preferences, a pattern we term exaggerated preference polarization. We demonstrate exaggerated preference polarization in five studies, and show that it is robust across a variety of common consumption scenarios. While prior research demonstrates that people often overestimate others’ partisanship, the present research demonstrates that people overestimate the influence of partisan cues on other consumers’ preferences. This research contributes to the literature by identifying a novel way in which political polarization influences consumption behavior, especially for interpersonal decision making. This work also has important implications for firms, who should recognize that people will be more responsive to political signals when choosing for others. We discuss further contributions and directions for future research in the general discussion.