This article introduces and validates a Political Antagonism Scale (PAS) aimed at capturing politically motivated antagonism among people in survey research. Recent trends indicate a rise in politically motivated polarization across various countries. This polarization often transcends mere ideological distance, fostering an identity-based “Us” versus “Them” political perspective. Consequently, this transforms the traditional agonistic political competition into a deeply adversarial antagonistic relationship, wherein political counterparts are viewed as enemies. Such conflict dynamics may have serious consequences for democratic politics and should be examined by scholars of political polarization across different political contexts and at different time points. However, a comprehensive survey tool addressing this form of polarization has been lacking. The PAS is designed to capture the complex nature of political antagonism and target individual antagonization towards their political outgroups on the level of social groups, political elites, the media, and everyday life. In addition, we present a regression model identifying potential sources of political antagonism. Our findings highlight the significant association between political antagonization and a prevailing sense of ontological insecurity.

中文翻译：

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“我们”与“他们”的两极分化如何运作？用政治对抗量表捕捉政治对抗

本文介绍并验证了政治对抗量表（PAS），旨在捕捉调查研究中人们出于政治动机的对抗情绪。最近的趋势表明，各国出于政治动机的两极分化有所加剧。这种两极分化往往超越单纯的意识形态距离，形成基于身份的“我们”与“他们”的政治视角。因此，这将传统的竞争性政治竞争转变为一种深度敌对的对抗关系，政治对手被视为敌人。这种冲突动态可能对民主政治产生严重后果，应该由研究不同政治背景和不同时间点政治极化的学者进行研究。然而，一直缺乏解决这种形式的两极分化的综合调查工具。伊党旨在捕捉政治对抗的复杂本质，并针对社会群体、政治精英、媒体和日常生活层面上的政治外群体的个人对抗。此外，我们提出了一个回归模型来识别政治对抗的潜在来源。我们的研究结果强调了政治对抗与普遍存在的本体论不安全感之间的显着关联。