Abstract
American partisans are far more hostile towards out-party members than they were 40 years ago. While this phenomenon, often called affective polarization, is well-documented, political scientists disagree on its cause. One group of scholars believes that affective polarization is driven by processes related to social identity theory. In particular, cross-cutting identities have declined in America, and toxic political communication continuously primes partisan identities and resentment. Recently, several scholars have pointed to another phenomenon as the root cause of affective polarization: partisan sorting, i.e. the alignment of partisan identities with ideologically consistent issue positions. I review evidence in favor of each claim, and provide additional evidence that affective polarization has increased about as much among those who are not sorted as among those who are sorted. Furthermore, while sorting is only related to affective polarization among the most politically knowledgeable, affective polarization has increased across all levels of political knowledge. Finally, affective polarization may also increase sorting, further complicating any clear cut causal relationship.
References
Abramowitz, A. I. 2010. The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Abramowitz, A. I., and K. L. Saunders. 2008. “Is Polarization a Myth?” The Journal of Politics 70 (02): 542–555.10.1017/S0022381608080493Search in Google Scholar
Abramowitz, A. I., and S. Webster. 2016. “The Rise of Negative Partisanship and the Nationalization of U.S. Elections in the 21st Century.” Electoral Studies 41: 12–22.10.1016/j.electstud.2015.11.001Search in Google Scholar
Abramowitz, A. I., and S. Webster. 2018. “Negative Partisanship: Why Americans Dislike Parties But Behave Like Rabid Partisans.” Political Psychology 39: 119–135.10.1111/pops.12479Search in Google Scholar
Abrams, D., and M. A. Hogg. 1988. “Comments on the Motivational Status of Self-Esteem in Social Identity and Intergroup Discrimination.” European Journal of Social Psychology 18 (4): 317–334.10.1002/ejsp.2420180403Search in Google Scholar
Ahler, D. J., and G. Sood. 2018. “The Parties in Our Heads: Misperceptions About Party Composition and Their Consequences.” Journal of Politics. In press.10.1086/697253Search in Google Scholar
Bakker, B. N., Y. Lelkes, and A. Malka. 2018. An Expressive Utility Account of Partisan Cue Receptivity: Cognitive Resources in the Service of Identity Expression. Working Paper.Search in Google Scholar
Bartels, L. M. 1996. “Uninformed Votes: Information Effects in Presidential Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 40 (1): 194–230.10.2307/2111700Search in Google Scholar
Bougher, L. D. 2017. “The Correlates of Discord: Identity, Issue Alignment, and Political Hostility in Polarized America.” Political Behavior 39 (3): 731–762.10.1007/s11109-016-9377-1Search in Google Scholar
Boxell, L., M. Gentzkow, and J. M. Shapiro. 2017. “Greater Internet Use is Not Associated with Faster Growth in Political Polarization Among US Demographic Groups.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115 (3): 201706588.10.1073/pnas.1706588114Search in Google Scholar
Brady, H., and P. Sniderman. 1985. “Attitude Attribution: A Group Basis for Political Reasoning.” The American Political Science Review 79 (4): 1061–1078.10.2307/1956248Search in Google Scholar
Campbell, A., P. E. Converse, W. E. Miller, and D. E. Stokes. 1960. The {A}merican Voter. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Search in Google Scholar
Carpini, M. X. D., S. Keeter, and M. X. Delli Carpini. 1997. What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters. New Haven: Yale University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Converse, P. “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Politics.” In Ideology and Discontent, edited by D. Apter, 206–261. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1964.Search in Google Scholar
Deutsch, M., and H. B. Gerard. 1955. “A Study of Normative and Informational Social Influences Upon Individual Judgment.” The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 51 (3): 629.10.1037/h0046408Search in Google Scholar
Downs, A. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy (Vol. 13, p. 310). New York: Harper. doi:10.2307/444355.10.2307/444355Search in Google Scholar
Ellis, C., and J. A. Stimson. 2009. “Symbolic ideology in the American electorate.” Electoral Studies 28 (3): 388–402.10.1016/j.electstud.2009.05.010Search in Google Scholar
Finkel, S. E. 1995. Causal Analysis with Panel Data (No. 105). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.10.4135/9781412983594Search in Google Scholar
Fiorina, M. P. 1981. Retrospective Voting in American National Elections. New Haven: Yale University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Geer, J. G. 2012. “The News Media and the Rise of Negativity in Presidential Campaigns.” PS - Political Science and Politics 45 (3): 422–427.10.1017/S1049096512000492Search in Google Scholar
Gilens, M. 2001. “Political Ignorance and Collective Policy Preferences.” American Political Science Review 95 (2): 379–396.10.1017/S0003055401002222Search in Google Scholar
Gitlin, T. 2016. “The Outrage Industry: Political Opinion Media and the New Incivility By Jeffrey M. Berry and Sarah Sobieraj Oxford University Press. 2014. 288 pages. $29.95 hardcover.” Social Forces 95 (1): e26–e26.10.1093/sf/sov038Search in Google Scholar
Huddy, L., L. Mason, and L. Aarøe. 2015. “Expressive Partisanship: Campaign Involvement, Political Emotion, and Partisan Identity.” American Political Science Review 109 (1): 1–17.10.1017/S0003055414000604Search in Google Scholar
Iyengar, S., and S. J. Westwood. 2015. “Fear and Loathing across Party Lines: New Evidence on Group Polarization.” American Journal of Political Science 59 (3): 690–707.10.1111/ajps.12152Search in Google Scholar
Iyengar, S., G. Sood, and Y. Lelkes. 2012. “Affect, Not Ideology: A Social Identity Perspective on Polarization.” Public Opinion Quarterly 76 (3): 405–431.10.1093/poq/nfs038Search in Google Scholar
Kinder, D. R., and N. P. Kalmoe. 2017. Neither Liberal nor Conservative: Ideological Innocence in the American Public. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Lee, F. E. 2016. Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226409184.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Lelkes, Y., and P. M. Sniderman. 2016. “The Ideological Asymmetry of the American Party System.” British Journal of Political Science 46 (04): 825–844.10.1017/S0007123414000404Search in Google Scholar
Lelkes, Y., G. Sood, and S. Iyengar. 2017. “The Hostile Audience: The Effect of Access to Broadband Internet on Partisan Affect.” American Journal of Political Science 61 (1): 5–20.10.1111/ajps.12237Search in Google Scholar
Lenz, G. S. 2009. “Learning and Opinion Change, Not Priming: Reconsidering the Priming Hypothesis.” American Journal of Political Science 53 (4): 821–837.10.1111/j.1540-5907.2009.00403.xSearch in Google Scholar
Levendusky, M. S. 2009. “The Microfoundations of Mass Polarization.” Political Analysis 17 (2): 162–176.10.1093/pan/mpp003Search in Google Scholar
Malka, A., and Y. Lelkes. 2010. “More than Ideology: Conservative–Liberal Identity and Receptivity to Political Cues.” Social Justice Research 23 (2–3): 156–188.10.1007/s11211-010-0114-3Search in Google Scholar
Margolis, M. F. 2018. “How Politics Affects Religion: Partisanship, Socialization, and Religiosity in America.” The Journal of Politics 80 (1): 30–43.10.1086/694688Search in Google Scholar
Martin, G. J., and A. Yurukoglu. 2017. “Bias in Cable News: Persuasion and Polarization.” American Economic Review 107 (9): 2565–2599.10.3386/w20798Search in Google Scholar
Mason, L. 2015. ““I Disrespectfully Agree”: The Differential Effects of Partisan Sorting on Social and Issue Polarization.” American Journal of Political Science 59 (1): 128–145.10.1111/ajps.12089Search in Google Scholar
Mason, L. 2016. “A Cross-Cutting Calm: How Social Sorting Drives Affective Polarization.” Public Opinion Quarterly 80 (S1): 351–377.10.1093/poq/nfw001Search in Google Scholar
Mason, L. 2018. “Ideologues Without Issues the Polarizing Consequences of Ideological Identities.” Public Opinion Quarterly 82 (S1): 280–301.10.1093/poq/nfy005Search in Google Scholar
Mason, L., and J. Wronski. 2018. “One Tribe to Bind Them All: How Our Social Group Attachments Strengthen Partisanship.” Political Psychology 39: 257–277.10.1111/pops.12485Search in Google Scholar
Ridout, T. N., E. Franklin Fowler, M. M. Franz, and K. Goldstein. 2018. “The Long-Term and Geographically Constrained Effects of Campaign Advertising on Political Polarization and Sorting.” American Politics Research 46 (1): 3–25.10.1177/1532673X17721479Search in Google Scholar
Rogowski, J. C., and J. L. Sutherland. 2016. “How Ideology Fuels Affective Polarization.” Political Behavior 38 (2): 485–508.10.1007/s11109-015-9323-7Search in Google Scholar
Rubin, M., and M. Hewstone. 1998. “Social Identity Theory’s Self-Esteem Hypothesis: A Review and Some Suggestions for Clarification.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 2 (1): 40–62.10.1207/s15327957pspr0201_3Search in Google Scholar
Sobieraj, S., and J. M. Berry. 2011. “From Incivility to Outrage: Political Discourse in Blogs, Talk Radio, and Cable News.” Political Communication 28 (1): 19–41.10.1080/10584609.2010.542360Search in Google Scholar
Sood, G., and S. Iyengar. 2016. “Coming to Dislike Your Opponents: The Polarizing Impact of Political Campaigns.” Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2840225 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2840225.10.2139/ssrn.2840225Search in Google Scholar
Sood, G., and S. Iyengar. 2017. “All in the Eye of the Beholder.” In The Feeling, Thinking Citizen: Essays in Honor of Milton Lodge, 1st ed., edited by H. Lavine and C. Taber, 195–228. New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781351215947-11Search in Google Scholar
Tajfel, H. 1982. “Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations.” Annual Review of Psychology 33 (1): 1–39.10.1146/annurev.ps.33.020182.000245Search in Google Scholar
Turner, J. C. 1981. “Towards a Cognitive Redefinition of the Social Group.” Current Psychology of Cognition 1 (2): 93–118.Search in Google Scholar
Webster, S. W., and A. I. Abramowitz. 2017. “The Ideological Foundations of Affective Polarization in the U.S. Electorate.” American Politics Research 45 (4): 621–647.10.1177/1532673X17703132Search in Google Scholar
©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
