Political Self-Confidence and Affective Polarization.

ABSTRACT: Even among those who share the same partisan commitments, some people say they despise the opposing party while others report far less animosity. Why are some people more likely to express hostility toward the opposing political party? We explore how individual-level differences in feelings of self-confidence fuel out-party animosities. Drawing on responses to a module of the 2020 Cooperative Election Study, we show that higher levels of internal political efficacy are associated with greater affective polarization. Those who feel self-assured about their political abilities are more likely to admit severing social ties with those who disagree with them and are more tolerant of discrimination against partisan opponents. In a survey experiment, we confirm that those with greater internal ef

SUBMITTER: Stapleton CE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11014683 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature