Voting in the Mall: Ideology, Grievance, and Political Consumerism

In this paper we consider how political ideology, attitudes toward historically-marginalized groups, and identification with grievance groups shape Americans’ self-reported participation in political consumerism (i.e., political boycotts and buycotts). Using data from the 2016 and 2020 American National Election Studies (ANES) surveys, we find that ideological intensity has an asymmetrical effect on boycott behavior in 2016, with strong liberals considerably more likely to engage in boycott behavior than strong conservatives. In 2020 the effect of ideological intensity shifts upward dramatically for conservatives, with both liberals and conservatives likely to engage in boycott behavior. We also find mixed results for the effects of attitudes toward and identification with historically-marginalized groups, though we do find that general political participation (and related variables) are strongly related to boycott activity. We discuss the implications of our findings, particularly as they relate to the effects of ideological intensity for liberals and conservatives.