To vote or not to vote? The relationship between ideological- and affective polarisation and the intention to vote.

Abstract

In this thesis the analytical- and empirical differences between ideological- and affective polarisation will be investigated as well as how these two manifestations of polarisation relate to the intention to vote of Americans during the presidential elections of 2020, using data from the American National Election Studies 2020 time series. A Spearman’s correlation show that there is no relationship between ideological polarisation- and effective polarisation. After conducting multiple binary logistic regression analyses, significant effects were found for ideological polarisation, affective polarisation, media exposure, educational attainment, sex and age. Educational attainment, affective polarisation, ideological polarisation and media exposure have the largest effect on the intention to vote of Americans during the presidential elections of 2020.