also commonly used in modern Russian to describe political affiliations. Research Partisanship causes survey respondents to answer political surveys differently, even if the survey asks a question with an objective answer. People with strong partisan beliefs are 12% more likely to give an incorrect answer that benefits their preferred party than an incorrect answer that benefits another party. This is due to the phenomenon of motivated reasoning, of which there are several types, including "cheerleading" and congenial inference. Motivated reasoning means that a partisan survey respondent may feel motivated to answer the survey in a way that they know is incorrect; when the respondent is uncertain of an answer, partisanship may also motivate them to guess or predict an answer that favorable to their party. Studies have found that offering a cash incentive for correct answers reduces partisan bias in responses by about 50%, from 12–15% to about 6%. See also Bipartisanship Macropartisanship Negative partisanship Nonpartisan Partisan (disambiguation) Political faction Political polarization Sectarianism Notes External links Graphic showing Rise of Partisanship in the US House of Representatives 1949–2011 Do politics make us irrational? – a TED-Ed talk by Jay Van Bavel Political terminology of the United States Soviet phraseology Political parties