Constructing the Enemy

Noun and Generic Party Labels Predict Partisan Prejudice in Social Media Comments

Bibliographic Data

ID24239018
AuthorsCarsten W Sanders (0000-0003-4032-1338, Universität Hamburg), Juliane Degner (0000-0002-6634-8099, Universität Hamburg)
Year2026
Publication date2026-10-17
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Psychological and Personality Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1948-5506 • E-ISSN: 1948-5514
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/19485506261495615
OpenAlexW7222804223
LanguageEN
References cited72

Research suggests that affective polarization stems from social categorization processes: People sort themselves and others into political categories and perceive each other as either ingroup or outgroup members. This categorization forms the basis for intergroup conflict, producing dislike and distrust between groups. However, the consequences of categorization are not uniform but scale with a group’s perceived entitativity—the degree to which it is perceived as coherent and unified. Research on novel groups suggests that perceived entitativity is driven by how others label these groups. Using fine-tuned transformer models to automatically classify Facebook posts ( N = 45,780) and comments ( N = 769,684), we show that this effect also holds for established political groups. Specifically, posts containing noun labels (e.g., “Senate Republicans”) rather than adjective labels (e.g., “Republican senators”) and using these labels generically (e.g., “Democrats want”) rather than non-generically (e.g., “some Democrats want”) receive higher proportions of comments expressing partisan prejudice.

affective polarization · Facebook · group entitativity · intergroup conflict · social categorization · social media comments · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Media and Politics

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