Polarising alone? The relationship between social contact and affective polarisation in Belgium and the UK

Abstract How does everyday social contact shape affective polarisation? Drawing on original survey data in Belgium and the United Kingdom (N = 2.000), we explore how different degrees and kinds of social contact relate to affective polarisation. While some consider social contact as a driver of polarisation others consider it to be a remedy. Our results provide evidence for the former argument: individuals who are less lonely, more engaged in their communities, and more socially connected tend to be more affectively polarised. However, our results also suggest that the kind of social contact matters. In the UK, we find that bridging ties - contact with people of a different background - are associated with lower levels of affective polarisation once the overall degree of social contact is controlled for. Nevertheless, the general finding remains: polarisation is higher among those with more frequent social contacts, irrespective of the nature of those connections. This indicates that the degree and kind of social contact have an independent, additive effect on affective polarisation. They do not condition one another but rather operate through different social mechanisms.