Political Polarization and Intergroup Relations: a study on Social Representations in Brazil

This research aimed to study left-wing and right-wing groups' political polarization and their Social Representations (SR) of each other, as well as to investigate the experience of political violence and the belief in a just world (BJW). An online survey was conducted. The left-wing groups used the terms equality, empathy, and justice to describe themselves, while the right-wing groups used freedom, conservatism, and justice. Both groups used negative terms to describe their opponents; left-wingers described right-wingers as selfish, ignorant, and intolerant and right-wingers described left-wingers as corrupt, intolerant, and extremist. Regarding violence, 72% stated that they knew someone who had suffered political violence in the last two years, especially through social media. As for the means on the BJW scale, left-wingers had a lower mean than right-wingers. There are significant differences in SRs and positions between the groups, which may be at the core of violence.