A new study suggests Elon Musk’s public shift toward conservative politics may be reducing liberals’ desire to purchase Tesla vehicles, without creating a corresponding increase in interest among conservatives. The research, published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, indicates that the chief executive’s political alignment could be negatively impacting the brand’s appeal to its traditional customer base while failing to attract new buyers from the other side of the political spectrum.
The research team, led by Alexandra Flores of Williams College, sought to understand the complex interplay between political identity, consumer behavior, and climate action. Individual choices, such as switching to an electric vehicle, can play a substantial part in reducing household greenhouse gas emissions. However, these decisions are not made in a vacuum. They are often influenced by social cues and political polarization. Previous research has shown that electric vehicles are often symbolically associated with liberal values, such as environmentalism and technological novelty, creating a political divide in their appeal.
The researchers identified a unique situation with Tesla, the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the United States. While the product itself aligns with liberal identity cues, its prominent chief executive, Elon Musk, has cultivated an increasingly conservative public persona. This created a testable conflict: would Musk’s conservative alignment make Teslas more appealing to conservatives and less polarizing overall, or would it alienate the liberal consumers who were historically more inclined to purchase an electric vehicle?
To investigate this, the researchers conducted a series of five surveys with United States adults. The first survey, in August 2023 with 633 participants, served as a baseline. Respondents were asked about their intentions to adopt 30 different actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The results from this initial survey established that purchasing an electric vehicle was the most politically polarized action of all those tested. Liberals expressed positive intentions to buy an electric vehicle, while conservatives expressed negative intentions, confirming the existing political divide.
Following this, the researchers conducted four more surveys between November 2023 and March 2025, with sample sizes ranging from 500 to nearly 700 participants each. In these studies, they introduced a key experimental component. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group was asked about their likelihood of purchasing an unspecified “electric vehicle” the next time they were in the market for a car. The other group was asked about their likelihood of purchasing a “Tesla.” This design allowed for a direct comparison of attitudes toward the specific brand versus the general product category.
Beginning with the third survey in May 2024, the researchers added another layer to their investigation. They began measuring participants’ personal perceptions of Elon Musk, asking them to rate him on traits related to warmth and competence, such as being likeable, trustworthy, competent, and intelligent. This allowed the team to directly examine whether views of the chief executive were connected to vehicle purchase intentions.
The findings revealed a consistent and telling pattern, particularly when broken down by political ideology. For conservatives, there was no significant difference in their intentions to purchase a Tesla compared to a generic electric vehicle. Across all surveys, they consistently reported being unlikely to buy either. Their personal perceptions of Elon Musk did not appear to change their disinclination toward purchasing an electric vehicle, regardless of the brand. Musk’s conservative alignment did not translate into increased support for his company’s product among this group.
Among liberals, however, a different story unfolded. Over the course of the studies, liberals showed a distinct and growing reluctance to purchase a Tesla compared to a generic electric vehicle. In the earlier surveys, liberals showed strong positive intentions to buy an electric vehicle in general. But when asked specifically about a Tesla, their enthusiasm dropped significantly, bringing their purchase intentions down to a negative level similar to that of conservatives.
The data further suggested that this effect was tied to their perceptions of Elon Musk. Liberals who held a more negative opinion of Musk showed a much larger drop in their intention to purchase a Tesla. This connection became stronger over the course of the study period, a time when Musk’s public association with conservative politics intensified.
The research also found a smaller, but still present, decline in liberals’ intention to purchase any electric vehicle, suggesting a potential “backlash effect” where negative feelings about the leading brand and its chief executive could be dampening enthusiasm for the entire product category among some liberal consumers.
Taken together, the results indicate that Musk’s political activities may have reduced support for Tesla among liberals without making up for it with new support from conservatives. The researchers connect this finding to a psychological concept known as negativity bias, where people are often more motivated by their dislike of something than their like for it. For liberals, the negative association with Musk’s politics appeared to outweigh the positive association of Tesla being an electric vehicle. For conservatives, the negative association with the “eco-friendly” product category appeared to outweigh any potential positive association with Musk.
The researchers acknowledge some limitations. The study measured purchase intentions, which may not always translate directly into actual sales. The findings also focus on one high-profile chief executive and brand, and the effects may not apply to all companies. Future research could explore how the political activities of corporate leaders affect consumer behavior in other industries.
The study, “Liberals are less willing to buy Teslas than other electric vehicles, moderated by perceptions of Elon Musk,” was authored by Alexandra Flores, Matthew G. Burgess, Mariah D. Caballero, Amanda R. Carrico, Jane E. Miller, Christian Suarez, and Michael P. Vandenbergh.
