Partisanship

Two predominant theories of partisanship include the psychological theory and the retrospective theory.

The psychological theory would say that partisanship is formed early in a person's life through socialization. Friends, family, peers, and so on are all included. All of this implies that a person's partisanship is developed before they even can vote. That being said, a person may develop a psychological connection to a party. It is more concerned with social identity than with policy. As a result, it produces a lens through which a person might interpret politics, which is prone to prejudice.

The retrospective theory emphasizes that humans are constantly acquiring information, allowing them to keep track of all good and bad interactions with each party. As a result, under the retrospective hypothesis, an individual's party ID is likely to alter dependent on policy and agenda. Factors that might affect people's party identification would have them assess what each party has done for them recently. This refers to the state of the economy and helps to explain the short-term ups and downs. Another component is ideological viewpoints, which can assist explain longer-term trends in retrospect.