2025 Volume 95 Issue 6 Pages 361-371
Viewing one’s political attitudes as moral imperatives is a significant risk factor for affective polarization. However, the psychological underpinnings of affective polarization are still unclear in multi-party societies, particularly in Asia. Through a survey, we revealed that participants regarded the eight major parties as either conservative- or liberal-oriented. We found a clear tendency of affective polarization regarding emotions toward those groups. Prominently, moral conviction exacerbated this tendency. We further investigated affective polarization in terms of explicit attitudes toward opposing party voters using social distancing, helping, and harming intention measures. Although we found no effects of moral conviction on helping and harming intentions, participants preferred somewhat greater social distance from the voters of their opposing parties. An exploratory analysis showed that affective polarization at the party level predicted those three behavioral intentions. The lack of generalized shared reality partially or fully mediated those relationships. Implications for affective polarization in Japan are discussed.
