Abstract:  Affective polarization—that is, personal dislike and distrust between Democrats and Republicans—is shown to arise, at least in part, from a shrinking number of cross-cutting identities that are shared by both Democrats and Republicans. We argue that this phenomenon might be specifically relevant to non-Hispanic white Americans, but less so to Hispanics who form a politically diverse group with strong social ties that unite them.

Across 6 years of ANES data and original survey data from nine different states across the country, we first show that Hispanics report persistently higher levels of out-party affect than do non-Hispanic whites. With nationally representative data, we directly connect the degree people are sorted to out-partisan hostility and we then find that Hispanics are consistently less socially sorted than whites. Finally, we show with novel survey data that Hispanics are less likely than whites to hold animosity toward out-partisan members of their own racial and ethnic group. We conclude that affective polarization might be less prevalent among the non-white groups who make up the fastest-growing proportion of the American electorate.