TY  - JOUR
A1  - Arbieu, Ugo
A1  - Albrecht, Jörg
A1  - Böhning-Gaese, Katrin
A1  - Lehnen, Lisa
A1  - Schleuning, Matthias
A1  - Mueller, Thomas
T1  - The attitudinal space framework: embracing the multidimensionality of attitudinal diversity
T2  - iScience
N2  - Attitude polarization describes an increasing attitude difference between groups and is increasingly recognized as a multidimensional phenomenon. However, a unified framework to study polarization across multiple dimensions is lacking. We introduce the attitudinal space framework (ASF) to fully quantify attitudinal diversity. We highlight two key measures—attitudinal extremization and attitudinal dispersion—to quantify across- and within-group attitudinal patterns. First, we show that affective polarization in the US electorate is weaker than previously thought based on mean differences alone: in both Democrat and Republican partisans, attitudinal dispersion increased between 1988 and 2008. Second, we examined attitudes toward wolves in Germany. Despite attitude differences between regions with and without wolves, we did not find differences in attitudinal extremization or dispersion, suggesting only weak attitude polarization. These results illustrate how the ASF is applicable to a wide range of social systems and offers an important avenue to understanding societal transformations.
KW  - Nature conservation
KW  - Ecology
KW  - Social sciences
KW  - Psychology
Y1  - 2023
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/79053
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-790537
SN  - 2589-0042
VL  - 26
IS  - 8, 107340
SP  - 1
EP  - 13
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -