Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-6-2025
Abstract
This study examines how perceived political party divide may foster affective polarization during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on nationally representative sample surveys of U.S. and South Korean adults, we investigate the relationship between attitude strength toward COVID-19 vaccines, perceived polarization, and affective polarization. Results suggest that individuals with stronger attitudes toward vaccines are more likely to perceive a greater ideological divide between political parties, which in turn, is associated with increased animosity toward the opposing party. Applying the mediation model to the South Korean sample yielded consistent findings, suggesting that the mechanism by which strong attitudes relate to negative emotions through perceived polarization may be generalizable across countries with a competitive two-party system, particularly in the context of COVID-19 vaccination attitudes. Our findings highlight perceived polarization as an important intermediary in the process of affective polarization, shedding light on the mechanisms driving partisan hostility in contemporary democracies.
Recommended Citation
Gill, Hyungjin, et al. "Perceived Political Party Divide During the Pandemic: A Framework Linking Attitude Strength Toward COVID-19 Vaccines to Affective Polarization." International Journal Of Public Opinion Research 37.4 (2025): edaf053. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edaf053
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
International Journal Of Public Opinion Research
DOI
10.1093/ijpor/edaf053
Comments
© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Association for Public Opinion Research. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.