In-Party Love, Out-Party Hate, and Affective Polarization in Twelve Established Democracies

Recent research has mapped levels of affective polarization worldwide. However, our current knowledge of the longitudinal patterns of in- and out-party affect, the two constitutive terms of affective polarization, remains limited. This manuscript expands the comparative and longitudinal scope of existing studies using national election study data from 143 elections across 12 Western democracies collected since the 1960s. The analysis expands previous descriptive accounts of levels of in- and out-party affect, reports levels of in-party love and out-party hate, and inspects longitudinal changes in the polarity of affect with a composite measure tapping the relative weight of in- and out-party feelings. The findings show a generalized decline of out-party evaluations and a growing prevalence of out-party hate versus in-party love over time. While citizens may not be more polarized than before in most Western democracies, contemporary affective polarization is more heavily characterized by a disproportionate weight of out-group dislike.