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This study explores the relationship between affective polarisation and support for liberal democracy, identifying measurement limitations.

Affect or Emotions? Disaggregating Affective Polarisation to Explain Support for Liberal Democracy in Belgium and the United Kingdom

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This study explores the relationship between affective polarisation and support for liberal democracy, identifying measurement limitations.
Conducted an original survey experiment with N=2000 participants in Belgium and the UK.
Investigated polarisation across societal cleavages while differentiating dislike, social distance, and emotions.
Analyzed the impacts of negative emotions and social attitudes towards anti-democratic actors on democratic support.
Conventional measures show a weak positive relationship with support for liberal democracy.
Negative emotions towards specified actors consistently correlate with lower support for liberal democracy.
Dislike and social distance towards anti-democratic actors relate to higher support for liberal democracy, indicating context matters.

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Randomized trial examines how different emotions affect support for liberal democracy in Belgium and the UK, suggesting a need for new measures.

Kamil Bernaerts (2026) studied this question.

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Randomized trial examines how different emotions affect support for liberal democracy in Belgium and the UK, suggesting a need for new measures.