Understanding Affective Polarization in Adolescence: drivers and responses

Basic data for this project

Description

Affective polarization (AP) exists when people have negative emotions toward political adversaries. In adulthood, it has been identified as a potential threat to democracy in direct (e.g., the storming of the capitol) and indirect ways (e.g., people not wanting to interact with supporters of certain political parties). While AP has primarily been studied in two-party systems, it also becomes more prevalent in multiparty contexts. There is a lack of research about what AP means for adolescents, whose political behavior and attitudes are more malleable than those of adults. This project aims to gain insight into drivers and possible responses to adolescents’ AP in two multiparty systems (Germany and Belgium). A first small survey (n=600; age: 16-20) will collect triggers of AP. A survey experiment will test possible strategies for lowering AP around issues relevant to education. A second survey (n=3000) will give a representative view of the drivers of AP in adolescence and will shed light on the possible role of schools in responding to AP. In a qualitative post-study interviews with teachers and focus group discussions with adolescents in schools will be conducted to provide deeper insights into selected findings and adapt findings from survey experiments to educational setting. With this research, we are innovative in several ways: 1) We merge existing research on AP, political socialization, and civic education, creating a comprehensive theoretical ground. 2) We add to the research on AP, focusing on how institutions can respond to it. 3) Methodologically state-of-the-art techniques: Structural Equation Modeling, Latent Class Analyses, and a survey experiment will be used in comparative perspective on unique datasets of young people.