Closest Acceptable Relationship with Outparty Voters
Polarization: affective mass horizontal
Data:
Use Cases: @gidron_validating_2022 @druckman_what_2019 @iyengar_affect_2012 @tichelbaecker_what_2023 @wagner_affective_2023 @jungkunz_populist_2025 @norman_why_2025
Description
Other than most of the other measures in this list, the Social Distance Scale does not compute an affective polarization score from other discrete items, but consists of one survey item that asks respondents of the closest relationship they would find acceptable with outparty voters. This way, it is supposed to measure not just like and dislike scores that are unclear in their implications, but the real societal impact of partisan differences.
One way to measure this consists of items asking respondents about the closest relationship they would find acceptable with outparty voters. Gidron et al. (2022) use a version of this scale with the response options ârelativeâ, âclose friendâ, âneighborâ, âco-workerâ, âcitizen in my countryâ, âvisitor to my countryâ, and ânot at allâ. Another commonly used variation is to make use of items about how the respondent would feel about outparty voters coming socially closer, i.e., by marrying.
Due to the complexity of this survey item, comparative data of this measurement is scarce.
Use cases
Publications that use this measure:
| Title | Authors |
|---|---|
| What Do We Measure When We Measure Affective Polarization? |
|
| Validating the feeling thermometer as a measure of partisan affect in multi-party systems |
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| Affect, Not Ideology |
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| Populist attitudes, cleavage identification, and polarization in Austria and Germany |
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| Why can’t we be friends? |
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| What Do We Measure When We Measure Affective Polarization across Countries? |
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| Affective polarization and coalition signals |
|