In our Elements we demonstrate using survey experiments and observational data from five countries that democratic backsliding is rarely, if ever, ethnically neutral, and that citizens are much more open to tolerating anti-democratic actions against ethnic minorities.
So affective polarization has a causal impact on interpersonal relations & democratic attitudes, but its effects depend on political context.
@eelcoharteveld.bsky.social spearheaded study & paper👏 with @andrejkokkonen.bsky.social @hayleekelsall.bsky.social @jonaslinde.bsky.social Dahlberg & me.
Across two national samples, worries about social media, AI, and modernity load on a single anti-technology factor (alpha=.85).
Who is the most anti-technology? Conspiracy thinking is the strongest correlate by far, stronger than loneliness or partisanship.
Doing research on identity and thinking about how to assess messages at scale? @adamsaffer.bsky.social, Jianing Li, and I developed the PersonaLex computational classifier to assist research on social identity.
Accessible. Transparent. Scalable. Grounded in research and theory.
🔗 bit.ly/PersonaLex