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. 2019;159(1):61-74.
doi: 10.1080/00224545.2018.1453468. Epub 2018 Apr 12.

Judging scandal: Standards or bias in politics

Erin D Solomon  1 , Jana M Hackathorn  2 , David Crittendon  2
Affiliations

Judging scandal: Standards or bias in politics

Erin D Solomon et al. J Soc Psychol. 2019.

Erratum in

  • Correction.
    [No authors listed] [No authors listed] J Soc Psychol. 2020;160(2):264-266. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2019.1599547. Epub 2019 May 14. J Soc Psychol. 2020. PMID: 32037987 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Abstract

As the number of political scandals rises, we examined the circumstances that might influence how a politician would be judged as a result of a scandal. Specifically, we hypothesized that ingroup bias theory and shifting standards theory would produce different patterns of judgements. In two studies, we found support for the ingroup bias theory, such that participants rated the fictitious politician's public approval and perceived character as higher if the politician was a member of their own political party (i.e. their ingroup) than if the politician was a member of the another political party (i.e. their outgroup). These results may explain, in part, why people may judge politicians involved in scandal more or less harshly depending on whether they are an ingroup member or outgroup member.

Keywords: infidelity; ingroup bias; political scandal; shifting standards; social identity theory.

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