#  Michele Margolis - The Identity – Belief Paradox: What We Call Ourselves, Not What We Believe, Drives Our Political Behavior 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **April 25, 2025** 

 12:00PM - 01:30PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **CGIS South S050**  



 

 



 

There is a disconnect between the beliefs that Americans hold and the identities they embrace. One in three Americans who report that being pro-life is “extremely important” to them believe that a woman should be allowed to have an abortion *for any reason* in the first trimester. Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that discrimination against women is a large problem, but a majority of these people do not call themselves feminists. And more than one in four Americans simultaneously believe that climate change poses a dire threat to our world yet also perceive environmentalists as people with whom they have little in common. This project examines identities that are 1) underpinned by a definitional set of beliefs and 2) composed of members who *choose* to identify as group members. Using ten salient identities—feminist, evangelical, secular, environmentalist, pro-life, pro-choice, Second Amendment (2A) supporter, Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporter, pro-Israel supporter, and pro-Palestine supporter—the project makes two key claims. First, group-based and belief-based measures of identity are not as strongly correlated as the literature assumes, or as intuition might lead us to think. Indeed, some Americans hold beliefs that are fully at odds with their identities. Second, this distinction between beliefs and attachments matters: group labels profoundly shape how people behave in the political world. Those who identify with a group are more likely to act on behalf of the group, respond emotionally to a group’s successes and losses, and interpret events through a group lens, *regardless of their beliefs*.



 

 



 

 

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