<b>AP beyond Partisan Lines - Data</b>.xlsx

This research examines the largely unaddressed fact that affective polarization, although originally conceived to designate a phenomenon between political parties, is being extrapolated as a conceptual lens to analyze relationships among various other identity groups. By implementing a comprehensive and systematic review of peer-reviewed research on affective polarization (n=317), we find that nearly a third of the works apply the concept beyond parties, to social divides such as opinion, ideological, racial, territorial, and religious identities. We analyze research trends in chronological and disciplinary terms, as well as observation contexts and thematic foci of interest, noting that research between and beyond parties show similar patterns. In a second stage, we implement a metatheoretical qualitative analysis in works that go beyond parties (n=91) to classify the groups potentially subject to affective polarization, the justifications underlying the selection of social identities, and finally, the predominant research methods and measurements. The results provide a comprehensive map of studies on affective polarization, spotlight theoretical and methodological problems that arise when detaching the concept from the specific context in which it was originally introduced, and offer a set of metatheoretical categories for the consideration of social identities in the public sphere: context complexity, comparative importance of identities, public activation of salience, and convergence of identities. Taken together, the results reveal how a growing interest in multiple forms of intergroup hostility is becoming embedded in the epistemic culture of the social sciences, particularly within political science and communication.