Manuel Almagro: Public opinion polarization and resistance

Tuesday October 28 2025 @11:30 (CET)
Sala A, Edificio de Humanidades, UNED & online

Abstract

The division of public opinion that plagues much of contemporary democracy can be understood in various ways. One of the most relevant concepts to understand what’s happening in many contemporary democracies is that of affective polarization. Affective polarization is typically conceived around two central dimensions: Political identity and animosity. I call this the two-­dimensional view of affective polarization. In this talk, I argue that this view distorts the division that’s happening in many contemporary democracies, and proposes a multi-dimensional view. According to it, affective polarization involves more dimensions beyond identity and emotions. In particular, it distinguishes three additional dimensions involved in affective polarization processes: The dimension of abstract narratives, the dimension of credence, and the dimension of emotional and non-emotional linguistic expression. These additional dimensions are crucial to properly understand public opinion’s division and to resist it.

Bio
Manuel Almagro is an Assistant Professor at the University of Valencia. He is member of the Valencia Philosophy Lab and the FiloLab UGR, and is co-PI of the research project “The nature of deniability and its philosophical implications (NANESI)” funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and PI of the research project “Epistemic and Speech Injustices (ESPEECHI)” funded by Generalitat Valenciana.