The economic divide that isn’t: A comparative study on economic hardship and affective polarisation

Abstract

This article examines the role of economic hardship in contributing to our understanding of the causes of affective polarisation – that is, the animosity between partisan groups. Evidence suggests that a variety of political attitudes and behaviours are influenced by economic hardship, but the relationship between individual economic hardship and affective polarisation has not yet been demonstrated. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether individuals facing economic insecurities are more affectively polarised. This study leverages two novel surveys, the first conducted in 11 European countries ( N = 12,000), the second in Belgium and the Netherlands ( N = 2174). Both contain individual-level measurements of economic hardship novel to the field of affective polarisation. Whereas the first allows for making generalisable claims across European multiparty systems, the second contains a more thorough operationalisation of the central concepts. The paper finds little to no evidence to support the existence of a link between economic hardship and affective polarisation. Across countries, objective and subjective measures of economic hardship are not linked to affective polarisation, neither when based on employment or financial status. Future research should now examine whether these cross-sectional findings are supported by longitudinal or experimental evidence.