Growing affective polarization, or animosity between competing ideological groups, threatens to tear apart democratic societies worldwide. In nations that are facing external conflicts, the threat arising from these conflicts may boost internal cohesion and potentially reduce the internal threat of fragmentation. However, in the current study, we analyze survey datasets from two societies embedded in intractable conflicts, South Korea ( N = 897) and Israel ( N = 504), and demonstrate that gaps in the perception of the external threat between competing ideological groups are related to higher levels of affective polarization within these societies. We also find support for a mechanism that explains this trend: an internal threat from the ideological outgroup. We discuss the implications of our findings for the study of conflicts' impact on intragroup processes, specifically affective polarization, and for the understanding of how such processes might perpetuate the conflict itself.

中文翻译：

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对凝聚力的威胁：棘手的群体间冲突背景下的群体内情感两极分化

日益增长的情感两极分化，或者相互竞争的意识形态群体之间的敌意，有可能撕裂全世界的民主社会。在面临外部冲突的国家中，这些冲突产生的威胁可能会增强内部凝聚力，并有可能减少内部分裂的威胁。然而，在当前的研究中，我们分析了韩国（N = 897）和以色列（N = 504）这两个陷入棘手冲突的社会的调查数据集，并证明相互竞争的意识形态群体之间对外部威胁的认知存在差距。与这些社会中更高程度的情感两极分化有关。我们还找到了对解释这一趋势的机制的支持：来自意识形态外群体的内部威胁。我们讨论了我们的研究结果对研究冲突对群体内过程（特别是情感极化）的影响的影响，以及对理解这些过程如何使冲突本身永久化的影响。