Finally, recent political science research has found that voters tend to adjust their policy positions to fit their “tribal” party loyalties, rather than the other way around.70 Sports fans typically feel a strong affinity for their team, even though they could not offer a reasoned explanation for their attachment. Similarly, political scientists Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels argue that “group and partisan loyalties, not policy preferences or ideologies, are fundamental in democratic politics,”71 and Michael Barber and Jeremy C. Pope find that “group loyalty is the stronger motivator of
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