Affective Polarization

Recently, an emerging literature, pioneered in the US context by Iyengar et al. (2012), has begun to distinguish affective from programmatic polarization. The phenomenon of affective polarization takes its roots in differing political positions of political actors. However, affective polarization goes beyond the programmatic side of politics and highlights that political identities go along with sympathies for members of one’s own political camp and antipathies toward the opposing side. Affective polarization is most commonly understood as the difference between ingroup like and outgroup dislike, although this is not the only possible way to define it (see Röllicke 2023).

Leininger, A., Grünewald, F. & Buntfuß, N. (2024, May 22).
Ideological and affective polarization in multiparty systems. doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/mz6rs

Measures

Measure	Polarization
API	affective, mass, vertical
Distance	affective, mass, vertical
Party Dyads	ideological, affective, mass, vertical
Other Polarization Measurements	ideological, issue, affective, elite, horizontal, mass, vertical
Social Distance Scale	affective, mass, horizontal
Spread	affective, mass, vertical

Use cases

Publications that address affective polarization:

Title	Authors
Can’t We All Just Get Along?	Adams et al. (2023)
The Downsian roots of affective polarization	Algara and Zur (2023)
Vertical vs horizontal affective polarization Disentangling feelings towards elites and voters	Areal and Harteveld (2024)
Elite communication and affective polarization among voters	Bäck et al. (2023)
Elite polarization, party extremity, and affective polarization	Banda and Cluverius (2018)
Camps, not just parties	Bantel (2023)
Institutional design and polarization	Bernaerts et al. (2023)
Consequences of affective polarization	Berntzen et al. (2023)
A regional perspective to the study of affective polarisation	Bettarelli et al. (2023)
Cleavage politics, polarisation and participation in Western Europe	Borbáth et al. (2023)
Cross-Country Trends in Affective Polarization	Boxell et al. (2022)
Understanding Polarization	Bramson et al. (2017)
A New Measure of Affective Polarization	Campos and Federico (2025)
The Politics of Interpersonal Trust and Reciprocity	Carlin and Love (2013)
What can De-Polarize the Polarizers?	Ciobanu and Sandu (2022)
Ideological identity, issue-based ideology and bipolar affective polarization in multiparty systems	Comellas and Torcal (2023)
When polarised feelings towards parties spread to voters	Comellas Bonsfills (2022)
The Two-Way Effects of Populism on Affective Polarization	Davis et al. (2024)
Misinformation, Narratives, and Intergroup Attitudes: Evidence from India	Daxecker, Fjelde, Prasad (2025)
Affective polarization and strategic voting in Britain	Down and Han (2024)
What Do We Measure When We Measure Affective Polarization?	Druckman and Levendusky (2019)
Defending the Status Quo or Seeking Change? Electoral Outcomes, Affective Polarization, and Support for Referendums	Eck and Paulis (2025)
The Mobilizing Effect of Party System Polarization. Evidence From Europe	Ellger (2024)
Affective Polarization towards Parties and Leaders, and Electoral Participation in 13 Parliamentary Democracies, 1980–2019	Ferreira da Silva and Garzia (2025)
Affective Polarisation in Comparative and Longitudinal Perspective	Garzia et al. (2023)
American Affective Polarization in Comparative Perspective	Gidron et al. (2020)
Validating the feeling thermometer as a measure of partisan affect in multi-party systems	Gidron et al. (2022)
Gender and affective polarization	Han (2025)
Fragmented foes	Harteveld (2021)
Does affective polarisation increase turnout?	Harteveld and Wagner (2023)
Affective polarization and the salience of elections	Hernández et al. (2021)
Divided by the Vote	Hobolt et al. (2020)
Fear and Loathing across Party Lines	Iyengar and Westwood (2015)
Affect, Not Ideology	Iyengar et al. (2012)
Sweet victory, bitter defeat	Janssen (2023)
Affective Polarization and Misinformation Belief	Jenke (2023)
Populist attitudes, cleavage identification, and polarization in Austria and Germany	Jungkunz and Helbling (2025)
Affective polarization in a word: Open-ended and self-coded evaluations of partisan affect	Kiesel and Amlani (2025)
What explains elite affective polarization?	Lucas and Sheffer (2025)
A Group-Based Approach to Measuring Polarization	Mehlhaff (2023)
Why can’t we be friends?	Norman and Green (2025)
Election campaigns and the cyclical nature of emotions	Öhberg and Cassel (2023)
The relationship between affective polarisation and democratic backsliding	Orhan (2022)
Does Populism Fuel Affective Polarization?	Pérez-Rajó (2024)
Affective polarization and habits of political participation	Phillips (2024)
Fear and loathing across party lines (also) in Europe	Reiljan (2020)
Patterns of Affective Polarisation toward Parties and Leaders across the Democratic World	Reiljan et al. (2023)
Overlapping polarization	Riera and Madariaga (2023)
Polarisation, identity and affect	Röllicke (2023)
Exploring differences in affective polarization between the Nordic countries	Ryan (2023)
Intergroup contact reduces affective polarization but not among strong party identifiers	Thomsen and Thomsen (2023)
What Do We Measure When We Measure Affective Polarization across Countries?	Tichelbaecker et al. (2023)
Social trust and affective polarization in Spain (2014–19)	Torcal and Thomson (2023)
Conflict or choice?	van Elsas and Fiselier (2023)
Affective polarisation in multiparty systems	Wagner (2021)
Affective polarization in Europe	Wagner (2024)
Divided by the jab	Wagner and Eberl (2024)
Elite Cooperation and Affective Polarization	Wagner and Harteveld (2024)
Affective polarization and coalition signals	Wagner and Praprotnik (2023)
The tie that divides	Westwood et al. (2018)
An unrequited conflict	Zumbrunn (2025)

Definitions of Polarization

Ideological Polarization