¿Demasiado lejos? Cómo la polarización mal percibida alimenta la polarización afectiva en España

Autores/as

Resumen

España es un país con altos niveles de polarización afectiva. Algunos estudios sostienen que esto es consecuencia de un aumento de la polarización ideológica, mientras que otros destacan el efecto de ciertos temas, así como la influencia de las redes sociales, las élites y los cambios en la oferta partidista. En este artículo proponemos otra explicación basada en el efecto de las percepciones erróneas. En primer lugar, mostramos que los individuos que tienen una percepción más irrealista de la posición ideológica de un partido tienden a desarrollar también mayores sentimientos de antipatía hacia dicho partido. En segundo lugar, demostramos que la polarización percibida incrementa la polarización afectiva individual. Nuestras actitudes están influenciadas por los juicios que hacemos sobre la realidad política, los cuales, a su vez, están condicionados (y sesgados) por nuestras identidades grupales. Finalmente, construimos un indicador de falsa polarización para analizar en qué medida la diferencia entre la polarización percibida y la polarización real del sistema de partidos se asocia con niveles individuales más altos de polarización afectiva. Con esta estrategia también confirmamos que, a medida que aumenta la percepción de falsa polarización, lo hace también la dispersión del afecto entre los distintos grupos partidistas. En resumen, este artículo explora la influencia de las percepciones sobre las actitudes ciudadanas. Estas percepciones tienden con frecuencia a exagerar artificialmente las diferencias con los grupos externos, lo que puede llevarnos erróneamente a pensar que tenemos poco en común.

Palabras clave

polarización afectiva, sesgo grupal, percepciones erróneas, polarización falsa

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/papers.3363

Publicado

07-07-2025

Cómo citar

Rojo-Martínez, J. M. (2025). ¿Demasiado lejos? Cómo la polarización mal percibida alimenta la polarización afectiva en España. Papers. Revista De Sociologia, 110(3), e3363. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/papers.3363

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