Beyond Valence: Arousal as a Core Dimension of Affective Polarization

Although affective polarization is fundamentally an affective construct, existing theories and measures focus almost exclusively on evaluative valence, largely overlooking emotional arousal. Building on the Circumplex Model of Affect, we develop and evaluate a two-dimensional framework of affective reactions toward political parties and affective polarization that incorporates emotional valence and arousal. Across three studies conducted in the Netherlands (N=984), the United Kingdom (N=1,001), and the United States (N=1,000), we show that feeling thermometers function as measures of valence and that valence and arousal represent empirically distinct dimensions of affective reactions. We then demonstrate that the level of emotional arousal provides incremental validity over traditional, valence-based measures of affective polarization, yielding additional and often stronger associations with key political correlates such as political engagement, ideological extremity, and democratic attitudes. These findings advance the conceptualization and measurement of affective polarization by incorporating arousal as a distinct dimension and clarifying when and why affective polarization is most strongly linked to political behavior and democratic attitudes.