For context: Affective polarization (how much people dislike the opposing party) is often blamed for democratic backsliding. But in my data, it’s negatively related to support for antidemocratic actions. Isn’t that the opposite of what we’d expect?
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I've seen this before in work by Campos & @cmfederico.bsky.social and @elijfinkel.bsky.social et al., especially when accounting for political sectarianism (othering + aversion + moralization). But I thought affective polarization was just unrelated, not negatively related!
This points to the need for better measures of affective polarization like political sectarianism—the moralized, toxic view of the other side. (come to my SPSP symposium about this!)
But still... why would colder feelings lead to less support for antidemocratic actions?
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1️⃣ Maybe people who are more polarized are also more politically conscious, which is related to more commitment to democratic norms?
Nah, I controlled for political interest and it does nothing.
Tried that too and found the same negative relationship!
There’s definitely skew, but I find it hard to believe that it would fully account for the results.
But still... why would colder feelings lead to less support for antidemocratic actions?