A presentation by Frederik Hjorth (University of Copenhagen). This event is part of the Political Economy Lunch Seminar (PELS).
Affective polarization, i.e. dislike based on partisan affiliation, is widespread in Western mass publics, but its causes are not well understood. We study the role of elite social interactions, proposed in earlier work, focusing on elites' use of vocal style in the context of legislative debates. Specifically, we argue that legislators signal dislike of other parties in part by using more rousing and indignant speech when addressing them. To test our theory, we compile a large collection of audio recordings spanning thousands of speeches in the Danish parliament, and develop and validate a speech-level measure of indignation. Consistent with expectations, we find that legislator indignation tracks patterns of party conflict as well as affective polarization at the mass level. The study demonstrates how audio data can be used in the study of party competition. Its findings shed new light on how elite behavior sustains party reputations and mass affective polarization.
