We Love, They Hate: How Radical Right Partisans Use Emotion Narratives to Consolidate Affective Polarization

Abstract

Western societies are affectively polarized. A burgeoning body of literature documents the causes and consequences of this tendency to love like-minded and hate opposing partisans. But what is the individual’s role in that? I argue that partisans are motivated to consolidate affective polarization to establish distinct and superior ingroups. Therefore, they use emotion narratives that a) ascribe normatively desirable emotions to the ingroup, b) ascribe normatively undesirable emotions to the outgroup, and c) maximize the contrast between both groups’ emotional experiences. I illustrate these strategies with a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with radical right voters, around whom affective polarization is particularly strong. The results show that partisans use a variety of emotion narratives to consolidate affective polarization. This paper emphasizes an individual’s role in affective polarization and closes by raising avenues for future investigations of this argument. Furthermore, its extensive documentation contributes to open science practices in qualitative research.