Darth Vader graffiti
Darth Vader graffiti
Harry Potter is likely a Democrat or Labour supporter, while Darth Vader surely votes Republican or Conservative—at least that’s what you’ll probably believe if you identify with the left side of the political spectrum. Conversely, if you lean right, expect the Boy Who Lived to cast his ballot for conservatives while the Sith Lord aligns with liberals.
This tendency to project our own political preferences onto fictional characters we admire—and to assign opposing views to villains we despise—has been documented in new research published today in the journal Political Science Research & Method.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Southampton and the University of Vienna, found that people consistently believe heroes would vote like them and villains would support their political rivals. This pattern of partisan projection may be contributing to growing political polarization in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
“If we see ‘villains’ as belonging to the other side, then we also tend to associate more and more negative attributes with that group,” explains Dr. Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte, who led the study. “This is not only bad news for polarization, but also makes us more easily susceptible to misinformation that confirms the existing biases we hold about the voters of certain parties.”
The research team surveyed 3,200 participants—1,600 each from the UK and USA—asking them which political party various fictional characters would likely support. The roster of characters included familiar faces from major franchises like Marvel, Disney, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Star Wars.
Results showed participants were 20 percent more likely to project their own politics onto heroes than villains. When it came to villains, people were equally likely (also 20 percent) to say these characters would vote for the opposing party rather than their own.
These findings held true regardless of whether participants were assigning Labour/Conservative affiliations in the UK or Democrat/Republican preferences in the US.
In a separate experiment, around 1,600 UK participants read one of two contrasting news stories about a local councillor—either a positive story where the official donated money to charity or a negative account describing embezzlement from the same charity. Though neither story mentioned the councillor’s political affiliation, about one in six respondents falsely “remembered” this detail, with a strong tendency to recall the charitable councillor as belonging to their preferred party and the corrupt one as a member of their political opposition.
When participants who acknowledged they didn’t know the answer were asked to guess, they followed the same pattern—assigning their own party to the hero and the opposing party to the villain.
This partisan projection was strongest among individuals with robust political identities. The researchers also noted that those on the political left showed a stronger tendency toward this type of projection than their counterparts on the right.
“People believe heroes are more likely to belong to their group but can accept a proportion might not,” Dr. Turnbull-Dugarte noted. “Respondents were much more consistent when identifying a villain as belonging to the other group. In a context where polarization is high, projection appears to be more about defining who we are not, than who we are.”
The implications extend beyond pop culture debates about whether Gandalf would support conservative fiscal policies or if Cruella de Vil would back progressive healthcare reform. This tendency to assume the worst about political opponents could help explain why cross-party dialogue has become increasingly difficult and why misinformation spreads so readily when it confirms existing prejudices.
Jennifer Michaels, a 42-year-old teacher from London who participated in the study, found the results unsurprising but concerning. “I catch myself doing this all the time, thinking people I admire must share my views,” she said. “It’s a bit scary to realize how automatically our brains make these connections.”
Political psychologists have long studied how partisan identities shape perceptions, but this research offers concrete evidence of how these biases manifest in everyday thinking. The findings suggest that our political tribes are not just defined by policy preferences but also by cultural associations and moral assessments that can become deeply ingrained.
The research comes at a time when political polarization continues to intensify in both the UK and US, with upcoming elections in both countries likely to highlight these divisions further.
“To overcome increasing political division, we need to recognize this tendency to project heroic and villainous traits along partisan lines and recognize that reality is always more complex and nuanced than our biases would have us believe,” Dr. Turnbull-Dugarte concluded.
So the next time you find yourself certain that your favorite superhero would vote your way, remember that fans across the political spectrum are thinking exactly the same thing—and they might just be projecting their biases too.
Categories Brain & Behavior, Social Sciences Tags Darth Vader, fictional characters, Harry Potter, misinformation, partisan projection, political polarization, political spectrum, research
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