Of Time and the Development of Affective Polarization
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Phillips, Joseph Biaggio
- Graduate Program:
- Political Science
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- December 07, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Eric Plutzer, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Eric Plutzer, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Suzanna Linn, Committee Member
Michael J Nelson, Committee Member
Christopher Daryl Cameron, Outside Member
Glenn Hunter Palmer, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Affective Polarization
Partisanship
Political Behavior
Prejudice
Perspective-Taking - Abstract:
- Animosity between Democrats and Republicans (affective polarization) has risen considerably since the 1970s. There is ample work on why affective polarization has risen over time and why some people dislike the opposition more than others, but little on how attitudes toward the opposing party develop within people over time. Therefore, this dissertation explores the development and maintenance of affective polarization in people. Chapter 1 introduces the dissertation. In Chapter 2, I employ two different age-period-cohort identification strategies and finds that affective polarization indeed increases with time, but also as people age. Age-related increases in partisan strength fully explain the aging effect. In Chapter 3, I use five panel datasets spanning four decades and show that affective polarization is stable in the short term, but malleable in the long term. Furthermore, changes in demographic alignment with one’s party correspond to increases in affective polarization over time. In Chapter 4, I ask whether affective polarization reflects in-party favoritism, out-party hatred, or both. Using a latent profile analysis, I find considerable heterogeneity among partisans, though out-party hatred is more predominant over time. Existing theories of affective polarization only explain some configurations of partisan affect. In Chapter 5, I ask how people remain affectively polarized. Using an observational perspective-taking task, I find most partisans do not take advantage of opportunities to understand the other side, especially the most well-sorted and politically engaged partisans.