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How are guilt by association and coat-tailing related?

These two things are related to one another because they both have to do with people being judged based on something other than their own merits.  They two are different in that one involves people being judged negatively and the other involves them being judged positively, but both involve judging people based on others.


Guilt by association is the idea that a person can be guilty of something because they associate with people who are guilty of that thing.  As an example of this in today’s political terms, let us think about Donald Trump and the KKK.  Trump has been endorsed by people from this group.  Since he is associated with the KKK, which is clearly a racist group, people judge him to be racist as well.  When a person is guilty by association, he or she is judged by the actions of the people they associate with, regardless of what their own actions have been.


Coat-tailing occurs when a candidate is elected mostly because another candidate is popular.  If, for example, the Republicans nominate a very popular candidate for the presidency, candidates for lower offices can “ride” that candidate’s “coattails.”  That means that people will come out to vote for the presidential candidate and will then vote for the Republicans running for lower offices simply because those Republicans are associated with the presidential candidate.  Instead of being judged badly for associating with someone else, people who coattail are being judged positively because they are associated with someone that people like.

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