Political polarization is on the rise in America. Although social psychologists frequently study the intergroup underpinnings of polarization, they have traditionally had less to say about macro societal processes that contribute to its rise and fall. Recent cross-disciplinary work on the contemporary political and media landscape provides these complementary insights. In this paper, we consider the evidence for and implications of political polarization, distinguishing between ideological, affective, and false polarization. We review three key societal-level factors contributing to these polarization phenomena: the role of political elites, partisan media, and social media dynamics. We argue that institutional polarization processes (elites, media and social media) contribute to people’s misperceptions of division among the electorate, which in turn can contribute to a self-perpetuating cycle fueling animosity (affective polarization) and actual ideological polarization over time.

在美国，政治两极化正在上升。尽管社会心理学家经常研究两极分化的群体间基础，但传统上，他们对导致其兴衰的宏观社会过程没有多说。最近在当代政治和媒体领域的跨学科工作提供了这些互补的见解。在本文中，我们考虑了政治两极分化的证据和含意，区分了意识形态，情感和错误两极分化。我们回顾了导致这些两极分化现象的三个关键的社会层面因素：政治精英，游击党媒体和社交媒体动态的作用。我们认为，制度上的两极分化过程（精英，媒体和社交媒体）加剧了人们对选民之间分裂的误解，