| Popis: |
Several authors claim that affective polarization is increasing in recent years in many countries, including the multi-party contexts in European countries. This study focuses on the vertical (citizen-elite) dimension of affective polarization, i.e. voters’ (negative) feeling(s) towards, or dislike of, politicians and parties with different opinions than their own. We test the presence of affective polarization among Flemish voters, but we also investigate how (1) the ethnic background of a politician and (2) the amount of personal information moderates the relationship between disagreement and dislike. This allows to test the effects of ethnic dissimilarity (voter and politician being of different ethnic origin) and of the person-positity bias on the perception of outgroup-belonging and the negative feelings associated with it driving affective polarization. |
