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“The More You Know, the More You Hate”: How News and Political Talk Shape Political Knowledge and Affective Polarization in Colombia, Mexico and the United States

Jiyoun Suk (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
David Coppini (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Carlos Muñiz (Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon)
Hernando Rojas (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Keywords: Political culture and participation

Abstract

A vast body of literature shows that affective polarization, the dislike towards people who belong to opposing political sides, is increasingly strong (Iyengar, Sood & Lelkes, 2013; Iyengar & Westwood, 2015). However, there is a dearth of research on the communicative antecedents of affective polarization, in particular when it comes to mass-mediated communication and political talk. What forms of news consumption and political talk shape affective polarization? In addition, the relationship between communication variables, political knowledge and affective polarization remains to be explored. Is political knowledge positively or negatively related to affective polarization? Can we find similar results across different political contexts on the mechanisms that lead to affective polarization, or are these mechanisms country specific?

This study seeks to bridge this gap in the literature, investigating the relationship between a series of communication variables, such as exposure to news and political talk, and certain political attitudes, including political knowledge and affective polarization. In addition, this study extends the study of the antecedents of political polarization to different political contexts, considering Colombia Mexico and the United States.

Our initial results show that exposure to news is positively related to general political talk, and homogenous political talk in the U.S. context, with indirect positive relationships to political knowledge and affective polarization. In Mexico we observe similar findings to the U.S. context. In the Colombia context, the pattern of results is also supported, with an additional finding: heterogeneous political talk is also positively related with knowledge and indirectly related with affective participation. Theoretical implications of these results are discussed.

Our results are based on a series of nationally representative public opinion surveys designed to gauge political culture in Colombia, Mexico and the United States, that were deployed during the months of April and May 2016. Our analytical technique includes path analyses that were conducted for each individual sample.