The DOI matches its Crossref record; 53 of the 53 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Affect, Not Ideology
Abstract
The current debate over the extent of polarization in the American mass public focuses on the extent to which partisans’ policy preferences have moved. Whereas “maximalists” claim that partisans’ views on policies have become more extreme over time (Abramowitz 2010), “minimalists” (Fiorina and Abrams 2009) contend that the majority of Americans remain centrist, and that what little centrifugal movement has occurred reflects sorting, i.e., the increased association between partisanship and ideology. We argue in favor of an alternative definition of polarization, based on the classic concept of social distance (Bogardus 1947). Using data from a variety of sources, we demonstrate that both Republicans and Democrats increasingly dislike, even loathe, their opponents. We also find that partisan affect is inconsistently (and perhaps artifactually) founded in policy attitudes. The more plausible account lies in the nature of political campaigns; exposure to messages attacking the out-group reinforces partisans’ biased views of their opponents.
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In the citing paper
“These observational approaches raise a critical inferential challenge, as they do not allow researchers to separate the impact of obtaining factual knowledge from the effect of other variables that are typically correlated with both domain-specific political knowledge and attitude polarization, such as the intensity of one’s political group identity11, one’s pre-existing factual beliefs21, or one’”
From Factual knowledge can reduce attitude polarization (2025) · cites this paper as [22]
In the citing paper
“A growing body of evidence shows that affective polarization is indeed on the rise in the United States.”
From Affective Polarization in Comparative and Longitudinal Perspective (2023) · cites this paper as Iyengar, Sood, and Lelkes 2012
In the citing paper
“Available research shows that US voters’ evaluation of their own parties and candidates is stable, yet they have come to dislike their opponents more over time (Iyengar, Sood, and Lelkes 2012, p. 413; Abramowitz and Webster 2016, p. 15; Finkel et al. 2020, p. 534).”
From Affective Polarization in Comparative and Longitudinal Perspective (2023) · cites this paper as Iyengar, Sood, and Lelkes 2012
In the citing paper
“Available research shows that US voters’ evaluation of their own parties and candidates is stable, yet they have come to dislike their opponents more over time (Iyengar, Sood, and Lelkes 2012, p. 413; Abramowitz and Webster 2016, p. 15; Finkel et al. 2020, p. 534).”
From Affective Polarization in Comparative and Longitudinal Perspective (2023) · cites this paper as Iyengar, Sood, and Lelkes 2012
In the citing paper
“This development appears to be driven by voters’ tendency to increasingly dislike parties and candidates they do not support.”
From Affective Polarization in Comparative and Longitudinal Perspective (2023) · cites this paper as Iyengar, Sood, and Lelkes 2012
In the citing paper
“Second, selective exposure to like-minded information would also likely result in affective polarizationa process of opinion formation in which individuals develop diverging evaluations of attitude objects (e.g., in-group vs. out-group candidates) in a partisan context (Abramowitz & Webster, 2016;Iyengar et al., 2012;Levendusky, 2018).”
From Do Search Algorithms Endanger Democracy? An Experimental Investigation of Algorithm Effects on Political Polarization (2020) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al., 2012
In the citing paper
“Recent work on public opinion suggests that there is an increasing tendency that people, especially partisans, defend the in-group and dislike the out-group (Iyengar et al., 2012;Levendusky, 2018).”
From Do Search Algorithms Endanger Democracy? An Experimental Investigation of Algorithm Effects on Political Polarization (2020) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al., 2012
In the citing paper
“it may boost accountability and decrease corruption but can also contribute to the aforementioned harmful forms of polarization”
From Political polarization and corruption: A theoretical and empirical review (2024) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al., 2012
In the citing paper
“Firstly, ideological polarization of political parties was shown to increase partisanship (Iyengar et al., 2012;Lupu, 2015)”
From Political polarization and corruption: A theoretical and empirical review (2024) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al., 2012
In the citing paper
“De acuerdo a nuestra búsqueda, Iyengar, Sood y Lelkes (2012) son los primeros autores en acuñar el término”
From El estudio de la polarización afectiva: una mirada metodológica (2022) · cites this paper as Iyengar, Sood y Lelkes (2012)
In the citing paper
“Varios investigadores en ciencia política sostienen que la polarización afectiva refleja ese proceso en un estado de hiperactividad (Garrett et al., 2014;Iyengar et al., 2012;Van Babel y Pereira, 2018).”
From El estudio de la polarización afectiva: una mirada metodológica (2022) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al., 2012
In the citing paper
“Utilizando esta medida, Iyengar et al. (2012) muestran como la polarización en EEUU ha ido creciendo sostenidamente en las últimas décadas.”
From El estudio de la polarización afectiva: una mirada metodológica (2022) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. (2012)
In the citing paper
“En su trabajo pionero realizado a partir de datos de encuestas en series de tiempo, Iyengar et al. (2012) mostraron que la creciente hostilidad entre los líderes demócratas y republicanos a partir de campañas agresivas contribuyó a la polarización afectiva en EEUU en las últimas décadas, medida a partir de cambios en la distancia social tolerada y el nivel de cercanía afectiva.”
From El estudio de la polarización afectiva: una mirada metodológica (2022) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. (2012)
In the citing paper
“Esto se debe a que el grado de afecto hacia el partido opositor es cada vez más bajo.”
From El estudio de la polarización afectiva: una mirada metodológica (2022) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. (2012)
In the citing paper
“En la última década, la literatura en ciencia política ha introducido un nuevo concepto denominado "polarización afectiva" para caracterizar una forma de polarización política en la que predominan actitudes de favoritismo por el propio grupo y desprecio hacia el grupo rival.”
From El estudio de la polarización afectiva: una mirada metodológica (2022) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al., 2012
In the citing paper
“No obstante, cuando el análisis se restringe a esos dos términos, el resultado persiste.”
From El estudio de la polarización afectiva: una mirada metodológica (2022) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. (2012)
In the citing paper
“En contraste, el grado de afecto hacia el partido propio se ha mantenido relativamente estable a lo largo de las últimas décadas.”
From El estudio de la polarización afectiva: una mirada metodológica (2022) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. (2012)
In the citing paper
“En 1960, sólo al 4-5% le resultaba molesto que su hijo se case con alguien del partido opuesto, mientras que para 2010 esa cifra saltó al 33% en los demócratas y al 50% en los republicanos (Iyengar et al., 2012).”
From El estudio de la polarización afectiva: una mirada metodológica (2022) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al., 2012
In the citing paper
“En su estudio pionero, Iyengar y colaboradores (2012) muestran que los americanos expresan cada vez más negatividad ante la perspectiva de que su hijo se case con alguien del partido contrario.”
From El estudio de la polarización afectiva: una mirada metodológica (2022) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. (2012)
In the citing paper
“Por ejemplo, Iyengar et al. (2012) compararon dos encuestas del tipo mencionado, una realizada en 1960 y otra en 2008 en EEUU, y encuentran que el sesgo in-group de adscribir más rasgos positivos hacia los del propio partido y el sesgo out-group de asignar más rasgos negativos a los miembros del partido rival crecieron exponencialmente de un período al otro.”
From El estudio de la polarización afectiva: una mirada metodológica (2022) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. (2012)
In the citing paper
“Aunque Iyengar y colaboradores no reportan el resultado de la correlación, sí muestran que mientras la polarización afectiva es creciente con el paso del tiempo, la polarización ideológica es estable.”
From El estudio de la polarización afectiva: una mirada metodológica (2022) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. (2012)
In the citing paper
“Particularmente, es claro que los investigadores del área pretenden distinguir la polarización afectiva (o actitudinal) de la polarización ideológica (Iyengar et al., 2012).”
From El estudio de la polarización afectiva: una mirada metodológica (2022) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al., 2012
In the citing paper
“La polarización política implica el dominio de la identidad partidaria/ideológica sobre otras formas de identificación y acción política (Iyengar et al,2012)”
From ¿Es válido atribuir la polarización política a la comunicación digital? Sobre burbujas, plataformas y polarización afectiva (2020) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al,2012
In the citing paper
“While the political divide has remained relatively stable in the United States in terms of issue positions (33), many other indicators point to a significant increase in partisan polarization and animosity in the mass public (18, 34): Democrats and Republicans are growing increasingly cold to each other, coming to dislike or even disdain their partisan opponents (15).”
From How digital media drive affective polarization through partisan sorting (2022) · cites this paper as [15]
In the citing paper
“Many scholars link these negative feelings to shifts in identity, with partisanship emerging as an important social identity under which many societal divisions and conflicts are coming to align (15–18).”
From How digital media drive affective polarization through partisan sorting (2022) · cites this paper as [15]
In the citing paper
“Iyengar et al. (2012) grounded affective polarization in Tajfel and Turner's (1979) social identity theory: partisanship is a social, not simply a political, identity.”
From Measuring affective polarization: Matching concepts to measures (2026) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. (2012)
In the citing paper
“sorting causes partisans to “dislike, even loathe” one another (15)”
From How digital media drive affective polarization through partisan sorting (2022) · cites this paper as [15]
In the citing paper
“Beginning with Iyengar et al. (2012), scholars have often used two measures that were included in surveys long before theories of affective polarization emerged: party feeling thermometers and social distance items.”
From Measuring affective polarization: Matching concepts to measures (2026) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. (2012)
In the citing paper
“Estas inercias contribuyen a un aumento en los niveles de polarización y hostilidad intergrupal, impulsando las emociones negativas hacia aquellos que se identifican con grupos opuestos (Iyengar, Sood y Lelkes, 2012).”
From Homofilia, polarización afectiva y desinformación en Twitter. Caso de estudio sobre la crisis migratoria #Openarms (2021) · cites this paper as Iyengar, Sood y Lelkes, 2012
In the citing paper
“they find “The difference in social distance between the parties was highly significant (p < .01)…Republicans maintain greater social distance from Democrats” (418).”
From Measuring affective polarization: Matching concepts to measures (2026) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. (2012)
In the citing paper
“Las creencias amplificadas y percepciones segregadas sobre el mundo forman la base para tomar actitudes (Iyengar et al., 2012).”
From Homofilia, polarización afectiva y desinformación en Twitter. Caso de estudio sobre la crisis migratoria #Openarms (2021) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al., 2012
In the citing paper
“and that extremity in issue opinions is not a necessary condition for affective polarization”
From The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States (2019) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. 2012
In the citing paper
“Rather, we argue that affective polarization is largely distinct from the ideological divide”
From The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States (2019) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. 2012
In the citing paper
“and ( b ) affective polarization actually decreased between 2012 and 2016.”
From The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States (2019) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. 2012
In the citing paper
“Iyengar et al. (2012) show that Americans have become increasingly averse to the prospect of their child marrying someone from the opposing party.”
From The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States (2019) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. 2012
In the citing paper
“It is particularly noteworthy that ( a ) the change is not that people like their own party more over time; rather, there is an increase in out-party animus, especially in recent years”
From The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States (2019) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. 2012
In the citing paper
“We also plot affective polarization ( gray line )-the difference between mean in-party feeling and mean out-party feeling-which shows a significant increase over time (Iyengar et al. 2012), mainly due to an increase in animus against the out-party.”
From The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States (2019) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. 2012
In the citing paper
“Ordinary Americans increasingly dislike and distrust those from the other party.”
From The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States (2019) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. 2012
In the citing paper
“with Republicans especially sensitive to crossparty marriage”
From The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States (2019) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. (2012)
In the citing paper
“In 1960, only 4-5% were upset with their child marrying someone from the out party, but that figure had jumped to one-third of Democrats and one-half of Republicans by 2010 (Iyengar et al. 2012, pp. 416-18).”
From The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States (2019) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. 2012
In the citing paper
“According to Iyengar et al. (2012), the percentage of Americans who would be somewhat or very unhappy if their child married someone of the opposite party has increased by about 35 percentage points over the last 50 years”
From The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States (2019) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al. (2012)
In the citing paper
“Finally, affective polarization (Fig. 1c) occurs when members of different social groups (or political parties) hold strong positive or negative attitudes (or feelings) about the groups themselves (not just their policy preferences49,79), owing to ‘in-party love’ and/or ‘out-party animus’80.”
From Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts (2022) · cites this paper as [79]
In the citing paper
“Se coincide en la importancia de las campañas como fenómenos que aumentan la manifestación de la identidad social y afectiva (Iyengar et al., 2012;Rodríguez et al., 2022).”
From Polarización en Twitter/X: análisis del debate generado por los medios de comunicación durante las elecciones locales y autonómicas del 28-M 2023 en España (2026) · cites this paper as Iyengar et al., 2012
In the citing paper
“Desde la perspectiva de Iyengar, el elemento constitutivo del proceso de polarización se desprende de las percepciones y miradas hacia "el otro" (político) que van tejiendo la hostilidad afectiva entre grupos.”
From “TE AMO, TE ODIO: DAME MÁS”*Polarización afectiva en la opinión pública argentina (2023) · cites this paper as Iyengar, Sood y Lelkes (2012)
In the citing paper
“Scholars have made the conceptual distinction between issue polarization—an ideological, policy-based political divide, and affective polarization, i.e. dislike, distrust, and general animosity of political partisans toward the other political side (5, 61, 62).”
From Troll and divide: the language of online polarization (2022) · cites this paper as [61]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Iyengar, S., Sood, G., & Lelkes, Y.
- Affiliations
- Stanford University (US)
- Princeton University (US)
- ORCID
- Iyengar, Shanto
- Venue
- Public Opinion Quarterly
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2012-09-01
- Volume
- 76
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 405-431
- ISSN
- 0033-362X (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5331
- OpenAlex
- W2124751389
- Semantic Scholar
- 1932d6438e6b18d4a97fb3c88c0463fc08b12879
- Cited by
- 2,996
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 465 · 2025: 445 · 2024: 388 · 2023: 275 · 2022: 299 · 2021: 273 · 2020: 247 · 2019: 162 · 2018: 170 · 2017: 108 · 2016: 70 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 33 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 149.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Public Opinion Quarterly (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- political polarization, partisan affect, social distance, partisanship, ideology, policy attitudes, outgroup hostility, political campaigns, partisan sorting, American public opinion
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