You Can Throw Them All in One Bag
Polarised Perception of Homogenous Outparty Camps
EPSA conference paper. July 5, 2024
Abstract
Psychology has long identified outgroup homogeneity, the perception of lower trait variability in the outgroup, as an important mechanism between social groups. I apply this idea to the context of left-right party camps in multiparty democracies. A more homogenous perception of the outcamp implies the inference of negative impressions to individual, otherwise more favorable parties, thereby limiting perceived similarities and connections towards the outcamp overall. I test whether, first, the outcamp is generally perceived as more homogeneous than the incamp; second, whether this perception is driving negative affect; and third, whether it reduces the likelihood of voting for the other camp. I find support for all three assumptions using cross-sectional data from twelve European countries across all five waves of the CSES, as well as causational evidence using data from the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES). Outgroup homogeneity needs to be considered a crucial aspect of political intergroup relations and can give further relevance to findings on affective polarization by specifying an outgroup dislike that is grounded in group identities rather than factual disagreement.