Political self-identification and affective polarization in Brazil’s political spectrum

Abstract

Affective polarization is understood as the animosity between divergent political groups and has been associated with political intolerance. Research has supported different theories on the nature of this intolerance and how it relates to political self-identification. Here, we investigated whether political self-identification, implicit attitudes towards right and left-wing political supporters, religiosity and explicit attitudes towards Brazil’s 2018 presidential candidates and their supporters were associated. Furthermore, we tested if political self-identification and religiosity could predict implicit attitudes towards political opponent supporters Sample consisted of 188 participants (85 female, Mean age = 31.734, SD = 8.695), politically selfidentified across the Brazilian political spectrum. Results evidenced positive correlation between political self-identification and Political IAT’s D Scores and significant difference in D Score between left, right and center political self-identified groups with religiosity as control variable. In addition, politically self-identified right groups presented greater association between negative valanced words and the image of political opponent supporters compared to other political self-identified groups. No significant differences for implicit attitudes were found between participants in the Very Left and Left group or Very Right and Right groups. A regression model evidenced that political self-identification and religiosity predicted 59.9% of D Scores variance. The results indicate that although the degree of association between political imagery and valanced words is a function of political self-identification, it is not possible to discriminate implicit attitudes between extremists and moderates in both sides of the political spectrum.