TY - JOUR
T1 - Affective polarization, local contexts and public opinion in America
AU - Druckman, James N.
AU - Klar, Samara
AU - Krupnikov, Yanna
AU - Levendusky, Matthew
AU - Ryan, John Barry
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank J. Lin and N. Sands for their research assistance, as well as E. Finkel and E. Groenendyk for feedback. Funding for this study was provided by Northwestern University, the University of Arizona and the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennslyvania. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Affective polarization has become a defining feature of twenty-first-century US politics, but we do not know how it relates to citizens’ policy opinions. Answering this question has fundamental implications not only for understanding the political consequences of polarization, but also for understanding how citizens form preferences. Under most political circumstances, this is a difficult question to answer, but the novel coronavirus pandemic allows us to understand how partisan animus contributes to opinion formation. Using a two-wave panel that spans the outbreak of COVID-19, we find a strong association between citizens’ levels of partisan animosity and their attitudes about the pandemic, as well as the actions they take in response to it. This relationship, however, is more muted in areas with severe outbreaks of the disease. Our results make clear that narrowing of issue divides requires not only policy discourse but also addressing affective partisan hostility.
AB - Affective polarization has become a defining feature of twenty-first-century US politics, but we do not know how it relates to citizens’ policy opinions. Answering this question has fundamental implications not only for understanding the political consequences of polarization, but also for understanding how citizens form preferences. Under most political circumstances, this is a difficult question to answer, but the novel coronavirus pandemic allows us to understand how partisan animus contributes to opinion formation. Using a two-wave panel that spans the outbreak of COVID-19, we find a strong association between citizens’ levels of partisan animosity and their attitudes about the pandemic, as well as the actions they take in response to it. This relationship, however, is more muted in areas with severe outbreaks of the disease. Our results make clear that narrowing of issue divides requires not only policy discourse but also addressing affective partisan hostility.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41562-020-01012-5
DO - 10.1038/s41562-020-01012-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 33230283
AN - SCOPUS:85096436072
SN - 2397-3374
VL - 5
SP - 28
EP - 38
JO - Nature Human Behaviour
JF - Nature Human Behaviour
IS - 1
ER -