In this article, we examine the deeper causes of a key group conflict during the COVID-19 pandemic: attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccination. Extending research on affective polarisation beyond partisanship, we analyse how people perceive the external groups of vaccination supporters and opponents. Furthermore, we investigate how their own moral foundations influence these perceptions. Using six samples from six European countries, our analyses reveal an affective divide between supporters and opponents of COVID-19 vaccinations. Most interestingly and contrary to conventional expectations, we find that individualising rather than binding foundations intensify affective polarisation between pro- and anti-vaccination supporters in all countries. It seems that especially in times of pandemic threat, COVID-19 vaccination supporters and opponents alike feel that their core moral foundations, in particular, fairness are being challenged by their respective out-groups. Our findings could be used to develop depolarisation interventions involving moral framing.
AminABBednarczykRARayCE, et al. (2017) Association of moral values with vaccine hesitancy. Nature Human Behaviour1(12): 873–880.
2.
BliucA-MMcGartyCReynoldsKMunteleD (2007) Opinion-based group membership as a predictor of commitment to political action. European Journal of Social Psychology37(1): 19–32.
3.
BorAJørgensenFPetersenMB (2023) Discriminatory attitudes against unvaccinated people during the pandemic. Nature613(7945): 704–711.
4.
CarloGMestreMVSamperPTurAArmentaBE (2011) The longitudinal relations among dimensions of parenting styles, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, and prosocial behaviors. International Journal of Behavioral Development35(2): 116–124.
5.
ChanEY (2021) Moral foundations underlying behavioral compliance during the covid-19 pandemic. Personality and Individual Differences171: 110463.
6.
ChouW-YSBudenzA (2020) Considering emotion in covid-19 vaccine communication: Addressing vaccine hesitancy and fostering vaccine confidence. Health Communication35(14): 1718–1722.
7.
ClarkCBSwailsJAPontinenHMBowermanSEKrizKAHendricksPS (2017) A behavioral economic assessment of individualizing versus binding moral foundations. Personality and Individual Differences112: 49–54.
8.
DiasNLelkesY (2022) The nature of affective polarization: Disentangling policy disagreement from partisan identity. American Journal of Political Science66(3): 775–790.
9.
DittoPHKolevaSP (2011) Moral empathy gaps and the American culture war. Emotion Review3(3): 331–332.
10.
DreisbachJLMendoza-DreisbachS (2021) The integration of emergency language services in covid-19 response: A call for the linguistic turn in public health. Journal of Public Health43(2): e248–e249.
11.
DruckmanJNLevenduskyMS (2019) What do we measure when we measure affective polarization?Public Opinion Quarterly83(1): 114–122.
12.
DruckmanJNKlarSKrupnikovYLevenduskyMRyanJB (2021) How affective polarization shapes Americans’ political beliefs: A study of response to the covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Experimental Political Science8(3): 223–234.
13.
FedericoCMWeberCRErgunDHuntC (2013) Mapping the connections between politics and morality: The multiple sociopolitical orientations involved in moral intuition. Political Psychology34(4): 589–610.
14.
FilsingerMFreitagM (2024) Asymmetric affective polarization regarding covid-19 vaccination in six European countries. Scientific Reports14(1): 15919.
15.
FlorianVMikulincerMHirschbergerG (2002) The anxiety-buffering function of close relationships: Evidence that relationship commitment acts as a terror management mechanism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology82(4): 527–542.
16.
GadarianSKGoodmanSWPepinskyTB (2022) Pandemic Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
17.
GailliotMTStillmanTFSchmeichelBJManerJKPlantEA (2008) Mortality salience increases adherence to salient norms and values. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin34(7): 993–1003.
18.
GarrettKNBankertA (2020) The moral roots of partisan division: How moral conviction heightens affective polarization. British Journal of Political Science50(2): 621–640.
19.
GidronNAdamsJHorneW (2020) American Affective Polarization in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
20.
GrahamACullenFTPickettJTJonsonCLHanerMSloanMM (2020) Faith in trump, moral foundations, and social distancing defiance during the coronavirus pandemic. Socius6: 1–23.
21.
GrahamJHaidtJKolevaS, et al. (2013) Moral foundations theory: The pragmatic validity of moral pluralism. In: DevinePPlantA (eds) Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 47. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp.55–130.
22.
GrahamJNosekBAHaidtJIyerRKolevaSDittoPH (2011) Mapping the moral domain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology101(2): 366–385.
23.
GuidryJPCarlyleKEPerrinPBLaRoseJGRyanMMessnerM (2019) A path model of psychosocial constructs predicting future Zika vaccine uptake intent. Vaccine37(36): 5233–5241.
24.
HadaricsMKendeA (2018) Moral foundations of positive and negative intergroup behavior: Moral exclusion fills the gap. International Journal of Intercultural Relations64: 67–76.
25.
HaidtJ (2008) Morality. Perspectives on Psychological Science3(1): 65–72.
26.
HaidtJ (2013) Moral psychology for the twenty-first century. Journal of Moral Education42(3): 281–297.
HenkelLSprengholzPKornLBetschCBohmR (2022) The association between vaccination status identification and societal polarization. Nature Human Behaviour7(2): 231–239.
29.
HoboltSBLeeperTJTilleyJ (2021) Divided by the vote: Affective polarization in the wake of the Brexit referendum. British Journal of Political Science51(4): 1476–1493.
30.
HuddyLMasonLAarøeL (2015) Expressive partisanship: Campaign involvement, political emotion, and partisan identity. American Political Science Review109(1): 1–17.
31.
IyengarSWestwoodSJ (2015) Fear and loathing across party lines: New evidence on group polarization. American Journal of Political Science59(3): 690–707.
32.
IyengarSSoodGLelkesY (2012) Affect, not ideology: A social identity perspective on polarization. Public Opinion Quarterly76(3): 405–431.
33.
KesebirPPyszczynskiT (2011) A moral-existential account of the psychological factors fostering intergroup conflict. Social and Personality Psychology Compass5(11): 878–890.
34.
KolevaSPGrahamJIyerRDittoPHHaidtJ (2012) Tracing the threads: How five moral concerns (especially purity) help explain culture war attitudes. Journal of Research in Personality46(2): 184–194.
35.
KornLBöhmRMeierNWBetschC (2020) Vaccination as a social contract. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences117(26): 14890–14899.
36.
LewisGJBatesTC (2011) From left to right: How the personality system allows basic traits to influence politics via characteristic moral adaptations. British Journal of Psychology102(3): 546–558.
37.
MasonL (2015) ‘I disrespectfully agree’: The differential effects of partisan sorting on social and issue polarization. American Journal of Political Science59(1): 128–145.
38.
McGartyCBliucA-MThomasEFBongiornoR (2009) Collective action as the material expression of opinion-based group membership. Journal of Social Issues65(4): 839–857.
39.
MilesiPAlbericiAI (2018) Pluralistic morality and collective action: The role of moral foundations. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations21(2): 235–256.
40.
NanXWangYThierKAdebamowoCQuinnSNtiriS (2022) Moral foundations predict covid-19 vaccine hesitancy: Evidence from a national survey of black Americans. Journal of Health Communication27(11–12): 1–11.
41.
Naveh-KedemYSverdlikN (2019) Changing prosocial values following an existential threat as a function of political orientation: Understanding the effects of armed conflicts from a terror management perspective. Personality and Individual Differences150: 1–11.
42.
NguyenCGMayerSJVeitS (2022) The impact of emotions on polarization. Anger polarizes attitudes towards vaccine mandates and increases affective polarization. Research & Politics9(3): 1–6.
43.
NiemiLYoungL (2013) Caring across boundaries versus keeping boundaries intact: Links between moral values and interpersonal orientations. PLoS ONE8(12): 1–12.
44.
OrrLVFowlerAHuberGA (2023) Is affective polarization driven by identity, loyalty, or substance?American Journal of Political Science67(4): 948–962.
45.
RenströmEABäckHCarrollR (2023) Threats, emotions, and affective polarization. Political Psychology44(6): 1337–1366.
46.
RudolphTJHetheringtonMJ (2021) Affective polarization in political and nonpolitical settings. International Journal of Public Opinion Research33(3): 591–606.
47.
SchieferdeckerDJolyPFaasT (2024) Affective polarization between opinion-based groups in a context of low partisan discord: Measuring its prevalence and consequences. International Journal of Public Opinion Research36(2): edae009.
48.
SchmidtkeKAKudrnaLNoufailyA, et al. (2022) Evaluating the relationship between moral values and vaccine hesitancy in great Britain during the covid-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional survey. Social Science & Medicine308(3): 1–8.
49.
SchuesslerJDinesenPTØstergaardSDSønderskovKM (2022) Public support for unequal treatment of unvaccinated citizens: Evidence from Denmark. Social Science & Medicine305(1): 1–6.
50.
SimasENCliffordSKirklandJH (2020) How empathic concern fuels political polarization. American Political Science Review114(1): 258–269.
51.
SmithIHAquinoKKolevaSGrahamJ (2014) The moral ties that bind. . .even to out-groups: The interactive effect of moral identity and the binding moral foundations. Psychological Science25(8): 1554–1562.
52.
SprengholzPHenkelLBöhmRBetschC (2023) Historical narratives about the covid-19 pandemic are motivationally biased. Nature623(7987): 588–593.
53.
SüssenbachPReesJGollwitzerM (2019) When the going gets tough, individualizers get going: On the relationship between moral foundations and prosociality. Personality and Individual Differences136(10): 122–131.
54.
TajfelHTurnerJC (2004) The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In: SidaniusJJostJT (eds) Political Psychology. Hove: Psychology Press, pp.276–293.
55.
TappinBMMcKayRT (2019) Moral polarization and out-party hostility in the US political context. Journal of Social and Political Psychology7(1): 213–245.
56.
WagnerMEberlJ-M (2024) Divided by the jab: Affective polarisation based on Covid vaccination status. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. Epub ahead of print 18 August. DOI: 10.1080/17457289.2024.2352449.
57.
WestEAIyengarS (2022) Partisanship as a social identity: Implications for polarization. Political Behavior44(2): 807–838.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
