DATA for: The resilience of rule compliance in a polarized society

Data and analysis code for Suri, Gächter, Kube and Schultz: "The resilience of rule compliance in a polarized society".

ABSTRACT: Democratic societies depend on citizens following rules even when those rules are set by political opponents. Rising political polarization may threaten this fundamental social behavior. We investigate the impact of polarization on rule compliance in the United States during the 2024 presidential election and the post-inauguration period in 2025. Across three phases in May and November 2024 and April 2025 (n=8,340), we measure political and affective polarization alongside behavior in a costly rule-following task (the ``coins task''). Participants were randomly assigned to follow rules set by a neutral experimenter, a politically non-identified participant, a political co-partisan, or a political opponent. We find that rule-following rates are approximately 54.4 percent and are robust across time points and rule-setter identities. However, participants reporting greater psychological distance from the rule-setter exhibit significantly lower compliance and reduced descriptive and normative beliefs about rule-following. Our findings highlight both the resilience and the fragility of rule compliance, offering new insights into how political divisions may shape fundamental cooperative behaviors in polarized societies.

用于Suri、Gächter、Kube与Schultz的论文《极化社会中规则遵从的韧性》（The resilience of rule compliance in a polarized society）的数据与分析代码。

摘要：民主社会依赖于公民遵守规则，即便这些规则由政治对手制定。日益加剧的政治极化可能威胁这一基础性社会行为。本研究聚焦2024年美国总统大选及2025年总统就职后阶段，考察极化现象对美国境内规则遵从行为的影响。本研究在2024年5月、2024年11月及2025年4月的三个阶段完成（有效样本量n=8340），同步测量了政治极化（political polarization）与情感极化（affective polarization），并记录了被试在一项带有成本的规则遵从任务（硬币任务，coins task）中的行为表现。被试被随机分配至四种规则制定者情境：中立实验者、未披露政治倾向的被试、同党派政治伙伴，以及党派政治对手。研究发现，整体规则遵从率约为54.4%，且该结果在不同时间节点与规则制定者身份下均保持稳健。然而，报告自身与规则制定者心理距离更大的被试，其规则遵从率显著更低，且对规则遵从的描述性信念与规范性信念均有所弱化。本研究结果既凸显了规则遵从的韧性，也揭示了其脆弱性，为理解政治分化如何塑造极化社会中的基础性合作行为提供了全新的研究视角。