The Effects of Political Attitudes on Affective Polarization: Survey Evidence from 165 Elections

2022 ◽  
pp. 147892992110673
Author(s):  
João V Guedes-Neto
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Dominant Parties ◽  
Cross National

How do individual-level political attitudes influence affective polarization on a global scale? This article contributes to the debate on the social distance of party affect by testing a set of hypotheses in 165 elections across the world. With a sample of over 170,000 voters, the results of multilevel mixed-effects regressions demonstrate that ideological radicalism, political knowledge, and external efficacy substantively affect how voters see the main political parties in electoral disputes taking place in 52 countries from 1996 to 2019. Satisfaction with democracy, however, is context-dependent; it positively influences affective polarization only when generalized democratic satisfaction is low. Furthermore, I show that these correlations remain stable regardless of the operationalization of affective polarization—that is, based on two dominant parties and weighted for multiparty competition. These findings provide robust inputs to the study of party preferences and social distance in a cross-national longitudinal perspective.

A Multilevel Approach to Investigating Cross-National Differences in Negotiation Processes

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Evert Van de Vliert
Keyword(s):  
Research Approach ◽  
Psychological States ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
National Differences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Multilevel Research ◽  
Negotiation Processes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Cross National

AbstractThe impact of the psychological states of the negotiators, the social conditions of negotiations, and the behavior of negotiators on the outcomes of negotiations differs from country to country. Various suboptimal, individual-level, and country-level solutions have been suggested to predict and explain such cross-national variations. Drawing inspiration from a series of cross-cultural studies on job satisfaction and motives for volunteer work that successfully employed multilevel modeling, we propose a multilevel research approach to more accurately examine the generalizability of negotiation models across countries.

scholarly journals Reach and speed of judgment propagation in the laboratory

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (16) ◽  
pp. 4117-4122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Moussaïd ◽  
Stefan M. Herzog ◽  
Juliane E. Kämmer ◽  
Ralph Hertwig
Keyword(s):  
Social Distance ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Dynamic Network ◽  
Social Contagion ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Information Distortion ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Good Performer ◽  
The Social ◽  
A Chain

In recent years, a large body of research has demonstrated that judgments and behaviors can propagate from person to person. Phenomena as diverse as political mobilization, health practices, altruism, and emotional states exhibit similar dynamics of social contagion. The precise mechanisms of judgment propagation are not well understood, however, because it is difficult to control for confounding factors such as homophily or dynamic network structures. We introduce an experimental design that renders possible the stringent study of judgment propagation. In this design, experimental chains of individuals can revise their initial judgment in a visual perception task after observing a predecessor’s judgment. The positioning of a very good performer at the top of a chain created a performance gap, which triggered waves of judgment propagation down the chain. We evaluated the dynamics of judgment propagation experimentally. Despite strong social influence within pairs of individuals, the reach of judgment propagation across a chain rarely exceeded a social distance of three to four degrees of separation. Furthermore, computer simulations showed that the speed of judgment propagation decayed exponentially with the social distance from the source. We show that information distortion and the overweighting of other people’s errors are two individual-level mechanisms hindering judgment propagation at the scale of the chain. Our results contribute to the understanding of social-contagion processes, and our experimental method offers numerous new opportunities to study judgment propagation in the laboratory.

scholarly journals What satisfaction with democracy? A global analysis of “satisfaction with democracy” measures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Devine
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Key Indicator ◽  
Country Differences ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Election Studies ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cross National

Asking citizens ‘the way democracy works’ is the basis of a wide literature on the support citizens have for their political institutions, and is one of the most common survey items in political science. Moreover, it is a key indicator for the purported global decline in legitimacy. Yet, its trends, levels and dynamics are still debated, and conclusions may be erroneous. In this paper, we compile a unique global dataset between 1973 and 2018 encompassing all major cross-national datasets and national election studies in 12 countries to study the dynamics and consistency of SWD measures globally. Our results show that while trends and between-country differences in democratic satisfaction are largely similar, the levels of satisfaction vary substantially between survey projects, and both trends and levels vary significantly in several widely studied countries. We show that this has consequences at the individual level: opting for one survey over another may alter our conclusions about the relationship between key demographics and SWD. Thus, researchers studying SWD should endeavour to consult diverse survey sources and should be cautious about their conclusions when they do not, especially when it comes to making claims about changes in SWD over time.

Voter Loyalty

2020 ◽  
pp. 63-85
Author(s):  
Catherine E. De Vries ◽  
Sara B. Hobolt
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Actual Behavior ◽  
Barriers To Entry ◽  
Subjective Measures ◽  
Party Membership ◽  
Formal Expression ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Dominant Parties ◽  
Party Attachment ◽  
Cross National

This chapter focuses on voter loyalty, looking at the barriers to entry that challenger parties face, most notably the strength of party attachments to dominant parties. First, it explores the development of party membership, which is the most formal expression of an attachment to a party. Second, it considers subjective measures of party attachment, which show cross-national volatility, but also clear signs of loosening ties. Third, the chapter studies actual behavior—namely, voter volatility, which captures individual-level party switching between elections. Here one sees that voters in the countries examined have become much more willing to switch parties. Finally, the chapter highlights the importance of different barriers to entry by comparing British and Danish case studies. Overall, the evidence suggests that voters are becoming more like consumers and more willing to switch if there is something more appealing on offer.

scholarly journals What Satisfaction with Democracy? A Global Analysis of “Satisfaction with Democracy” Measures

2021 ◽  
pp. 106591292110096
Author(s):  
Viktor Orri Valgarðsson ◽  
Daniel Devine
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Key Indicator ◽  
Country Differences ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Election Studies ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cross National

Asking citizens “the way democracy works” is the basis of a wide literature on the support citizens have for their political institutions and is one of the most common survey items in political science. Moreover, it is a key indicator for the purported global decline in legitimacy. Yet, its trends, levels, and dynamics are still debated, and conclusions may be erroneous. In this paper, we compile a unique global dataset between 1973 and 2018 encompassing all major cross-national datasets and national election studies in twelve countries to study the dynamics and consistency of “satisfaction with democracy” (SWD) measures globally. Our results show that while trends and between-country differences in democratic satisfaction are largely similar, the levels of satisfaction vary substantially between survey projects, and both trends and levels vary significantly in several widely studied countries. We show that this has consequences at the individual level: opting for one survey over another may alter our conclusions about the relationship between key demographics and SWD. Thus, researchers studying SWD should endeavor to consult diverse survey sources and should be cautious about their conclusions when they do not, especially when it comes to making claims about changes in SWD over time.

scholarly journals Violence of Values/Values of Violence. The Cultural Struggle of Alt-Right Politics

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuria Sanchez Madrid
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Political Values ◽  
New Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Struggle

This paper tackles the construction of social and political values that contemporary Alt-Right politics foster. Its aim will be, first, to tackle the values that Alt-Right parties are spreading at a global scale from the last decade. Second, I will focus on how they address the most precarious social groups for increasing their supporters and how they have built a new model of the social order that gainsays human and civil rights. Finally, I will give an account of some reasons that explain the social failure of classical Leftist political parties, also attempting to transform the ways they accost the former ‘working class’. I engage a dialogue with Zeynep Gambetti and Vladimir Safatle, as both authors have centrally addressed the cultural struggle that populist right parties accomplish on a global scale.

scholarly journals Methodology for the Study of Socio-Political Attitudes of International Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 6-13
Author(s):  
S. V. Rastorguev ◽  
Z. I. Volkhonskaya
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
Integral Index ◽  
Integrated Index ◽  
The Social

The article presents the rationale for the classification of international students based on civilizational criteria. The authors identified and characterized eight cultural profiles: two post-Soviet profiles, European, Latin American, African, Arabic, Chinese, and southern.The authors propose to use sociological scales to identify and measure the socio-political attitudes of international students. The authors proposed their options for the following scales: the social distance of E. Bogardus, equal intervals of L. Thurstone, total ratings of R. Likert, the scale of L. Guttman. We also proposed the author’s interpretation of the method of semantic differential of C. Osgood. Each scale allows you to identify and measure attitudes towards Russia. Finally, the authors proposed an integral index of socio-political attitudes. The integral index consists of an average of five of the above indices. The integrated index allows you to minimize research errors and compare the attitudes of students from different cultural profiles.

Social distance as a moderator of the effects of transformational leadership: Both neutralizer and enhancer

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (11) ◽  
pp. 1697-1733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Cole ◽  
Heike Bruch ◽  
Boas Shamir
Keyword(s):  
Transformational Leadership ◽  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Leader Behavior ◽  
Emotional Climate ◽  
Contextual Variable ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Recent Interest ◽  
The Social ◽  
Leaders And Followers

Following recent interest in contextual factors and how they might influence the effects of transformational leadership, we consider the social distance between leaders and followers as a cross-level moderator of the relationships between senior level managers’ transformational leadership and individual-level outcomes. Our sample comprised 268 individuals in 50 leader-follower groups. Results revealed that high social distance reduced or neutralized transformational leadership’s association with followers’ emulation of leader behavior. In contrast, high levels of social distance between leaders and followers enhanced the effects of transformational leadership on individuals’ perceptions of their units’ positive emotional climate and individuals’ sense of collective efficacy. Results not only highlight the importance of social distance as a contextual variable affecting leader-follower relations but also suggest that the same contextual variable may have differential effects, enhancing some relationships and neutralizing others.

Protecting outsiders? Corporatism and the dualisation of unemployment protection in Germany and Austria

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastian Betthäuser
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cross National ◽  
The Way

Recent research has found that much of the social protection retrenchment since the early 1990s has been targeted at workers with low or unstable incomes, resulting in a ‘dualisation’ of social protection. However, little is known about the causes for cross-national variation in the way that different welfare states have reformed unemployment protection for these ‘labour market outsiders’. This article sheds light on the potential causes for this variation by considering the cases of Germany and Austria, two countries that have diverged markedly in their reforms of unemployment protection for non-standard workers. Based on a ‘most-similar-systems’ design and an analysis of the reform trajectories of the two countries, the power of unions to influence the policy process through corporatist institutions and through their ties to political parties is identified as an important factor in this divergence—one that has received surprisingly little attention in the dualisation literature thus far.

Seeing Similarity or Distance?

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leigh Wilton ◽  
Diana T. Sanchez ◽  
Lisa Giamo
Keyword(s):  
Social Distance ◽  
Mixed Race ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Perceived Similarity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intergroup Perception ◽  
Intergroup Perceptions ◽  
Racially Ambiguous ◽  
Ambiguous Faces

Biracial individuals threaten the distinctiveness of racial groups because they have mixed-race ancestry, but recent findings suggest that exposure to biracial-labeled, racially ambiguous faces may positively influence intergroup perception by reducing essentialist thinking among Whites ( Young, Sanchez, & Wilton, 2013 ). However, biracial exposure may not lead to positive intergroup perceptions for Whites who are highly racially identified and thus motivated to preserve the social distance between racial groups. We exposed Whites to racially ambiguous Asian/White biracial faces and measured the perceived similarity between Asians and Whites. We found that exposure to racially ambiguous, biracial-labeled targets may improve perceptions of intergroup similarity, but only for Whites who are less racially identified. Results are discussed in terms of motivated intergroup perception.

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