Since the mid-2010s, public discourse in Hungary has undergone significant changes,
characterized by a shift in focus towards issues less relevant to voters’ daily lives
and increased polarization of public attitudes along political lines. This paper explores
the role of partisan identity in shaping attitude polarization. It posits that, beyond
material interests or stable moral values, partisan identity independently influences
social attitudes. Using a series of survey experiments conducted between 2016 and
2018, the effect of the salience of political conflict on attitudes about politically
salient issues, such as immigration policy and the regulation of foreign-funded NGOs
is investigated. Results indicate that partisan identity independently contributes
to the polarization of attitudes, with respondents exposed to certain politicized
issues aligning their views more closely with stereotypical partisan positions on
other issues. The paper critiques existing experimental paradigms in political behaviour
research and highlights the importance of incorporating social psychological approaches
to understand the interplay between partisan identity and public opinion formation.
