Understanding Committed Leftists in the United States Right Before the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election

Authors

  • Grace Flores-Robles
    Department of Psychology, City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, New York, NY, USA
  • Alix Alto
    Department of Psychology, City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, New York, NY, USA
  • Kyle Anderson
    Department of Psychology, City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, New York, NY, USA
  • Jordan Wylie
    Department of Psychology, Boston College, Boston, MA, USA
  • Levi Satter
    Veeva Systems, Pleasanton, CA, USA
  • Ana P. Gantman
    Department of Psychology, City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, New York, NY, USA; Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY, USA

Abstract

In this paper, we sought to better understand people who identify politically as Leftists in the United States. We combined quantitative and qualitative methods to compare identification and beliefs of U.S. Leftists and Liberals. We recruited from online political spaces and Prolific (N = 621). Rather than identifying as more extreme Liberals, people recruited from Leftist spaces see Leftists as a distinct group, defined by their anti-capitalist ideology, and desire for radical societal change. This is part of a general moral opposition to the status quo – by committed Leftists but not convenience-sampled Liberals–which negatively predicted support for Joe Biden right before the 2020 election. In sum, committed Leftists see themselves as a distinct and meaningful political identity group that lies outside the liberal-conservative ideology spectrum.