Testing political knowledge as a mediator of the relationship between news use and affective polarization

ABSTRACT

Fueled by news media, affective polarization is on the rise in the United States. This study tests the possibility that people learn to be polarized from news by investigating whether political knowledge mediates the relationship between news use and affective polarization. Analysis of the 2016 American National Election Studies (ANES) survey (N = 4,271) shows that news media use is associated with higher levels of political knowledge, and also that higher levels of political knowledge  are associated with increases in affective polarization. We find that those who actively use news media are more likely to have political knowledge, which, in turn, leads them to have more polarized attitudes toward candidates. The findings of the current study are discussed in light of scholarly conversations on affective polarization in American politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Affective polarization
• Political polarization
• Political knowledge
• News consumption
• Political learning
• Presidential election

Highlights

• News use is positively associated with political knowledge and affective polarization.

• Political knowledge is positively related to affective polarization.

• Political knowledge mediates the relationship between news use and affective polarization.

Notes

¹ We also tested mediation using the R package, mediation. The results are substantively similar to those generated by PROCESS, indicating positive mediation of political knowledge on affective polarization about both groups (B =.89, LLCI =.51, ULCI =.96, p <.05; n = 1,212) and candidates (B =.89, LLCI =.54, ULCI =.94, p <.05; n = 1,215).