Divided Politics, Divided Lives? Affective Polarization, Gender, and Loneliness in Finland

Polarization can be described as when opinions and attitudes discontinue existing on a continuum and are drawn to opposing extremes. Affective polarization refers to the positive feelings and associations towards one’s own political ingroup, in combination with negative feelings and associations that arise towards the outgroup on the other end of the spectrum. Recent studies have shown that polarization is increasing in several countries. This change is happening simultaneously with increases in singleness and loneliness. Moreover, a historically significant political gap can be observed in many Western countries between young men and women, raising questions regarding heterosexual relationship formation. The current study set out to examine differences in affective polarization in men and women, and to test loneliness, age, and relationship status as predictors of affective polarization in a Nordic multiparty democracy. We used a population-based sample of 7,357 Finnish adults who responded to an online survey. In line with previous findings, men were found more likely to be TAN (traditional-authoritarian-nationalist)-polarized, and women more likely to be GAL (green-alternative-libertarian)-polarized. In addition, polarization was found to be more common among younger respondents. Surprisingly, relationship status was not found to be a significant predictor of affective polarization. Loneliness was found to be more common in GAL-, but not in TAN-polarized respondents, indicating that less moderate political alignment may be associated with loneliness in general.