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Value extremity contributes to affective polarization in the US

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2020

Adam M. Enders  and
Robert N. Lupton Open the ORCID record for Robert N. Lupton [Opens in a new window]
Adam M. Enders
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Louisville, Louisville, USA
Robert N. Lupton*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

A wealth of research documents the rise of affective polarization, or the increasing disdain for the out-party in American politics. In this paper, we analyze ANES data from 1988 to 2016 to investigate the contribution of core value polarization to the phenomenon of out-party enmity. We find that greater differences in fundamental principles relate significantly to emotionally intense evaluations of the opposing party and its candidates, as well as the ideological out-group, independent of issue attitude extremity and the strength of one's partisan and ideological identities. Moreover, ANES panel data from 1992 to 1996 reveal that past value extremity promotes future affective polarization. These results are important for our understanding of the nature and extent of value-based polarization in American politics.

Keywords

Affective polarizationcore valuessorting
Type
Research Note
Information
Political Science Research and Methods , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , October 2021 , pp. 857 - 866
Copyright
Copyright © The European Political Science Association 2020

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https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/W01JL7
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