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Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

Tannah Carter

Keywords

Brexit, political polarization, United Kingdom

Abstract

Political polarization has become an increasingly hot topic in recent years as countries around the world have seen a greater divide in their national politics. In general, polarization refers to the process whereby people become increasingly sorted into separate camps that hold distinct and opposing identities and interests (McCoy, Rahman, and Somer 2018). However, this divide is not limited to ideology: countries have also seen an increase in affective polarization. Affective polarization occurs when individuals move beyond simple policy disagreements into seeing themselves as belonging to an “in-group” while those who oppose them belong to the “out-group” (Iyengar, Sood, and Lelkes 2012). This group mentality leads to increasingly positive feelings toward one’s own group, and increasingly negative feelings toward the opposing group (Iyengar, Sood, and Lelkes 2012). In simple terms, affective polarization can be measured as the difference between how much an individual prefers their own group and how much they dislike the other group (Gidron, Adams, and Horne 2020).

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