Editing Political polarization (section)

=== Affective polarization ===
Affective polarization refers to the phenomenon where individuals' feelings and emotions towards members of their own political party or group become more positive, while their feelings towards members of the opposing party or group become more negative. This can lead to increased hostility and a lack of willingness to compromise or work together with people who hold different political views.<ref>Iyengar, S., Lelkes, Y., Levendusky, M., Malhotra, N., & Westwood, S. J. (2019). The 
Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States. Annual Review 
of Political Science, 22(1), 129–146. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051117-
073034</ref> This phenomenon can be seen in both online and offline settings, and has been on the rise in several countries in recent years.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Boxell |first1=Levi |last2=Gentzkow |first2=Matthew |last3=Shapiro |first3=Jesse M. |date=2022-01-25 |title=Cross-Country Trends in Affective Polarization |url=https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article/doi/10.1162/rest_a_01160/109262/Cross-Country-Trends-in-Affective-Polarization |journal=The Review of Economics and Statistics |volume=106 |issue=2 |language=en |pages=557–565 |doi=10.1162/rest_a_01160 |issn=0034-6535}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite journal |last1=Hahm |first1=Hyeonho |last2=Hilpert |first2=David |last3=König |first3=Thomas |date=2023-03-30 |title=Divided We Unite: The Nature of Partyism and the Role of Coalition Partnership in Europe |journal=American Political Science Review |language=en |volume=118 |pages=69–87 |doi=10.1017/S0003055423000266 |issn=0003-0554 |s2cid=257873474 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Affective polarization has been estimated via a variety of methods, including the Affective Polarization Scale and regression methods applied to social media data.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McMurtrie |first1=Brandon |last2=Philipp |first2=Michael |last3=Hebden |first3=Ross |last4=Williams |first4=Matt |date=2024 |title=Development and Validation of the Affective Polarization Scale |journal=[[International Review of Social Psychology]] |volume=37 |issue=1 |doi=10.5334/irsp.926|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Nettasinghe |first1=Buddhika |last2=Rao |first2=Ashwin |last3=Jiang |first3=Bohan |last4=Percus |first4=Allon G. |last5=Lerman |first5=Kristina |chapter=In-Group Love, Out-Group Hate: A Framework to Measure Affective Polarization via Contentious Online Discussions |date=2025-04-22 |title=Proceedings of the ACM on Web Conference 2025 |chapter-url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3696410.3714935 |series=WWW '25 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=560–575 |doi=10.1145/3696410.3714935 |isbn=979-8-4007-1274-6|arxiv=2412.14414 }}</ref>

Affective polarization may lead to aggressive attitudes and behaviors toward members of other ideological groups within the same country.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hetherington |first1=Marc J. |title=Why Washington Won't Work |last2=Rudolph |first2=Thomas J. |date=2015 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226299358 |location=Chicago}}</ref> Extreme affective polarization may even lead to dangerous consequences like societal disintegration and ideological sorting.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Orian Harel |first1=Tal |last2=Maoz |first2=Ifat |last3=Halperin |first3=Eran |title=A conflict within a conflict: Intragroup ideological polarization and intergroup intractable conflict |journal=Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences |date=2020 |volume=34 |pages=52–57 |doi=10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.11.013 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Nettasinghe |first1=Buddhika |last2=Percus |first2=Allon G |last3=Lerman |first3=Kristina |date=2025-03-01 |title=How out-group animosity can shape partisan divisions: A model of affective polarization |url=https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/4/3/pgaf082/8069205 |journal=PNAS Nexus |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=pgaf082 |doi=10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf082 |pmid=40125444 |pmc=11927084 |issn=2752-6542|arxiv=2403.16940 }}</ref> Affective polarization can be reduced by various means, such as feeling sadness together as a group (which often happens during Memorial Days).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gur |first1=Tamar |last2=Ayal |first2=Shahar |last3=Wagner |first3=Magnus |last4=Adler |first4=Eli |last5=Halperin |first5=Eran |title=A Group that Grieves Together Stays Together: Examining the Impact of Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel on Affective Polarization |journal=Political Psychology |doi=10.1111/pops.1295|doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 }}</ref> A high prevalence of respectful discussions with political others may also reduce affective polarization by increasing political tolerance and inter-party trust.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kubin |first1=Emily |last2=Puryear |first2=Curtis |last3=Schein |first3=Chelsea |last4=Gray |first4=Kurt |title=Personal experiences bridge moral and political divides better than facts |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |date=2021 |volume=118 |issue=6 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2008389118|doi-access=free |pmid=33495361 |pmc=8017692 |bibcode=2021PNAS..11808389K }}</ref> High salience of a national common identity may also reduce affective polarization, as members of other parties are suddenly seen as in-group members.