Have you ever wondered how a popular culture hero or villain might vote in today’s political climate?
A recent study from the University of Southampton has found that people tend to project their political perceptions onto fictional heroes and villains, assuming admired characters share their views while disliked ones align with the opposing party.
The research demonstrates a psychological bias that may contribute to political polarization.
Heroes, Villains, and Political Perceptions
On March 17, the University of Southampton published a study in Political Science Research & Methods examining how people in the United States and the United Kingdom assume that fictional characters they admire would vote the same way they do—while characters they dislike would vote for the opposing party.
Additional research found that one in six people assumed a politician’s party affiliation based on whether they were portrayed as good or bad—even when no such information was provided. Most participants believed that the “good” politician was on their side and that the “bad” one belonged to the opposing party. Some experts argue that this type of bias contributes to increasing political polarization across Western cultures.
“If we see ‘villains’ as belonging to the other side, then we also tend to associate more and more negative attributes with that group,” says Dr. Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte, lead author of the study from the University of Southampton. “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.”
In the first study, 1,600 people from the U.S. and UK were surveyed, creating a total sample of 3,200 participants. They were asked about characters from popular franchises such as Marvel, Disney, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Star Wars. Throughout the study, participants were asked to guess whether these characters would most likely support the Labour or Conservative parties in the UK or the Democratic or Republican parties in the U.S.
The responses were then compared with the participants’ political leanings. The findings suggest that people were 20% more likely to project their political views onto characters they admired. Similarly, participants were 20% more likely to assume that a villain would support the opposing party.
Media Influence on Political Perceptions
In a second study, approximately 1,600 people in the UK were presented with one of two contrasting news stories about a local councillor—one in which the councillor donated money to charity and another in which they stole from a charity. Participants were then asked to guess which political party the councilor belonged to, even though no such information was provided.
Around one in six people mistakenly “remembered” the councilor’s party affiliation, demonstrating a clear bias: those who read about the charitable councilor assumed they were from their own party. In contrast, those who read about the dishonest councilor assumed they belonged to the rival party. Even when respondents who did not recall the information were asked to guess, they did so along partisan lines.
“People believe heroes are more likely to belong to their group but can accept a proportion might not. Respondents were much more consistent when identifying a villain as belonging to the other group,” said Turnbull-Dugarte.
“In a context where polarisation is high, projection appears to be more about defining who we are not, than who we are.”
People with stronger political beliefs were more likely to associate heroes with their own side and villains with the opposition. The study also found that those on the political left were especially prone to this bias compared to those on the right.
“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,” notes Turnbull-Dugarte.
The paper was published in Political Science Research & Method.
Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on The Debrief’s YouTube Channel on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton and at chrissynewton.com.