When political élites talk, and citizens reply. Affective polarization
through time perspective and intergroup emotions
Abstract
Given the increase of political polarization in social networks,
particularly during electoral campaigns, this study sought to determine
the levels of affective polarization in political communication through
the temporal perspective, delegitimizing beliefs, and intergroup
emotions. Two studies were carried out: the first in the context of the
elections in Andalusia (Spain) and the second during the Colombian
presidential campaign. Both studies took the tweets of candidates and
Twitter users who commented on them. From linguistic analysis, an index
was developed to measure affective polarization in linguistic pieces,
such as tweets. It was found that in contexts without political
violence, it is common to implement communicative strategies with high
indicators of ingroup bias, which implies a lower polarization, but
increases with positive emotions and a focus on the future. Whereas, in
contexts of political violence, the strategy focused on discrimination
of the outgroup and its delegitimization, in which positive emotions
decreased polarization, while the focus on the past increased it. It was
concluded that affective polarization could be an indicator the
disposition to reconciliation processes in contexts of violence, and a
map of emotions associated with polarization is provided.