Consistent with what is known about group polarization, Schkade and Sunstein (2003) found that on federal appellate court cases, a Republican judge sitting with two other Republicans voted than when sitting with one Democratic appointee.

more conservatively.

Explanation:

The concept of group polarization is important aspect of sociology that explains how human beings behave or make decisions that are more different when they are in group(that is group of people with similar opinion) which may not be the same decision they will make when they are in a different group (that is a group that has different opinion to their own).

Schkade and Sunstein (2003) decided to make a research regarding how judges make decisions and they found out that "on federal appellate court cases, a Republican judge sitting with two other Republicans voted MORE CONSERVATIVE than when sitting with one Democratic appointee".

NOTE: the capitalized words in the paragraph above are the missing words used in filling the gap in the question.

answer; sociological imagination;