Handbook of Affective Polarization

Contemporary democracies appear to be characterized by rising levels of antipathy, tribalism, intolerance, and negative emotions between citizens with opposing political views. This phenomenon, recently conceptualized as affective polarization, refers to the tendency of individuals to favor their own partisan group while harboring negative sentiments toward opposing groups. This Handbook provides an overview of the phenomenon of affective polarization. Each chapter takes stock of a subfield of affective polarization studies by describing the state of the art of the literature, providing a theoretical framework, and proposing avenues for further research. The handbook has six sections: I. Concepts and theory; II. Operationalization; III. Affective polarization around the world; IV. Origins of affective polarization; V. Consequences of affective polarization; and VI. Solutions.