How warm are political interactions? A new measure of affective fractionalization

Affective polarization measures account for partisans' feelings towards their own party versus its opponent(s), but not for how likely partisans are to encounter co-partisans versus out-partisans. However, the intensity of out-party dislike and the probability with which this comes into play bo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2024-05, Vol.19 (5), p.e0294401-e0294401
Main Authors: Hudde, Ansgar, Horne, Will, Adams, James, Gidron, Noam
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affect (Psychology)
Affect - physiology
Biology and Life Sciences
Engineering and Technology
Hostility
Humans
Partisanship
People and places
Personal relationships
Polarization
Polarization (Social sciences)
Politics
Populism
Probability
Psychological aspects
Radicalism
Research and Analysis Methods
Segregation
Social impact
Social interaction
Social science research
Social Sciences
Society
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Summary:Affective polarization measures account for partisans' feelings towards their own party versus its opponent(s), but not for how likely partisans are to encounter co-partisans versus out-partisans. However, the intensity of out-party dislike and the probability with which this comes into play both determine the social impact of cross-party hostility. We develop an affective fractionalization measure that accounts for both factors, and apply it to longitudinal survey data from 20 Western publics. From this perspective, countries with fewer dominant parties may be more harmonious because partisans have lower probabilities of interacting with political opponents. At the party level, partisans of smaller, more radical parties are particularly troubled because they strongly dislike out-partisans and have few co-partisans. Affective fractionalization has increased in most Western publics over time, primarily because of growing party-system fragmentation.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0294401