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Gender and affective polarization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2026

Kyung Joon Han Open the ORCID record for Kyung Joon Han [Opens in a new window]
Kyung Joon Han*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, The University of Tennessee Knoxville, USA
*
Address Correspondence: Kyung Joon Han, Department of Political Science, The University of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA. Email: khan1@utk.edu
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Abstract

Though many empirical analyses on affective polarization demonstrate that women hold a higher level of affective polarization than men in industrialized democracies, a theoretical explanation for the gender difference is hardly discussed in the literature. Using the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (Module 3) and a causal mediation analysis model, we find that women's higher level of affective polarization in Western Europe is substantially and significantly explained by their stronger disapproval of populist radical right‐wing parties as well as their greater concern for issues around gender and the natural environment. On the one hand, the results confirm that the mediation role of issue politics found in the United States is also observed in Western Europe. On the other hand, the results imply that affective polarization in Western Europe is connected with the politics of the populist radical right.

Keywords

affective polarizationgenderissue saliencethe populist radical right

Information

Type
Research Note
Information
European Journal of Political Research , Volume 64 , Issue 4 , November 2025 , pp. 2122 - 2131
Copyright
Copyright © 2025 European Consortium for Political Research.

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