Trump Derangement Syndrome has been Psychologically Confirmed

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As shown in Figure 2b, the cluster reflecting the Democrat belief-system almost exclusively contained extreme attitudes as indicated by strong disagreement with each of the eight items. Conversely, the cluster reflecting the Republican belief-system contained a wider range of attitude responses ranging from mild disagreement to maximum agreement.

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Participants also showed noticeable differences in their evaluation of others depending on the relative distance between their own position and the position of the other's attitude in the network (r = .49). Findings by Dias and Lelkes (2021) suggest that attitudes signal partisan identities and therefore drive social judgements.

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According to the present findings, Democrats (more than Republicans) tightly centre their belief-system around a set of positions at the extremes of these particular items, implying that people who deviate from these positions are likely to be considered as outgroup members (extremity should thereby be understood as a function of both, the formulation of the item and the response). It is possible that holding extreme (and thus unnegotiable) attitudes on important social-political issues has become increasingly identity defining for Democrats, not least in response to Donald Trump's controversial presidency.

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