A Country Divided? Polarisation and identity after Brexit

脱欧公投让英国成为一个政治分裂的国家：脱欧者和留欧者成为新的政治和社会身份，仍然影响着人们对政治和彼此的看法。过去几年的研究表明，英国脱欧路线上出现了巨大的社会分歧，英国政党政治也出现了部分重组。然而，对于是什么塑造和强化了这些新的英国退欧身份，我们仍然知之甚少：为什么这些身份对一些人来说如此重要，而对另一些人来说却无关紧要？既然英国已经离开了欧盟，这些身份是在褪色，还是在本质上发生了变化？理解和解决英国退欧两极分化的后果，需要了解其基础。这些特性的韧性越强，对民主对话和合法性的潜在负面影响就越大。在某种程度上，英国退欧的身份植根于关于文化价值观的更深层次的社会分歧，这种两极分化可能会持续很久，即使标签的含义变得越来越模糊。同样，既然英国已经离开欧盟，其他问题也变得越来越重要，似乎也有理由预计，这些身份对大多数人来说可能会变得不那么重要。无论哪种方式，我们都需要了解这些身份是如何变化的，至关重要的是，我们需要知道谁仍然依附于他们的英国退欧身份。由于人们对新的政治身份如何出现和演变知之甚少，英国退欧为理解政治团体依恋的发展提供了一个重要的案例。因此，最终，我们希望对政治身份的性质以及这些身份如何变化提供新的基本见解。我们的核心观点是，要了解英国脱欧分歧对英国社会的长期影响，仅仅追踪有多少人认为脱欧派和留欧派是不够的，尽管这显然是必要的。了解这些群体的规模很重要，但我们还需要跟踪这些身份的强度和情感强度，并评估是什么影响了这些身份随着时间的变化。首先，我们感兴趣的是物质私利如何影响身份转变。为此，我们想要考察现实世界的变化，特别是那些我们知道因英国退欧而变得更好或更差的人，是如何影响政治身份的。其次，我们希望应用社会心理学关于基本人格特征在塑造身份依恋和韧性方面的作用的见解。我们不打算使用人格特征来解释谁是一方或另一方，而是我们将使用这些特征来解释身份保持和身份强度。最后，我们知道情感极化与“过滤气泡”和“回音室”有关，因为人们变得不愿意与来自另一边的人接触(面对面或在线)。因此，我们还想探索身份是如何通过社交、地理和社交媒体网络的同质性保持并再次根深蒂固的。实际上，我们计划使用各种最先进的方法来回答这些问题，包括调查实验、实验室实验、重复的横断面调查和小组调查。我们的成果不仅将有助于关于英国脱欧后社会和政治的讨论，也将有助于关于政治身份和民主的更根本的辩论。在“脱欧后的治理”号召方面，我们的项目直接涉及两个优先领域，主要是(2)“脱欧后的英国经济和社会”(脱欧/留欧身份)，以及(3)“脱欧后的宪法、政治和政策”(对政党和民主的影响)。

The EU referendum left Britain a politically divided country: 'Leavers' and 'Remainers' became new political and social identities that still shape how people view politics, and each other. Research over the last few years has demonstrated large social divisions along Brexit lines and a partial realignment of British party politics. Yet we still know very little about what shapes and reinforces these new Brexit identities: why are these identities so central for some people, but tangential for others? And are these identities fading, or changing in nature, now that Britain has left the EU? Understanding and addressing the consequences of Brexit polarisation requires knowledge of its foundations. The greater the resilience of these identities, the greater the potential negative effects on democratic dialogue and legitimacy. To the extent that Brexit identities are rooted in a deeper societal divide about cultural values, such polarisation may persist far into the future, even as the meaning of the labels grows ever more obscure. Equally, now that Britain has left the EU and other issues have grown in importance, it also seems reasonable to expect that these identities may become less important to most people. Either way, we need to understand how these identities change, and crucially we need to know who remains attached to their Brexit identity. As little is known about how new political identities emerge and evolve, Brexit provides an important case for understanding the development of political group attachments. Ultimately, we therefore want to provide new fundamental insights into the nature of political identities and how these identities change. Our core argument is that to understand the long-term impact of Brexit divisions on British society, it is not sufficient, although it is clearly necessary, to simply track how many people identify as 'Leavers' and 'Remainers'. Knowing the size of these groups is important, but we also need to track the strength, and emotional intensity, of these identities, and assess what affects how these identities alter over time. First, we are interested in how material self-interest affects identity change. To this end, we want to examine how real-world changes, specifically focused on people who we know are better off or worse off because of Brexit, affect political identities. Second, we want to apply insights from social psychology about the role of fundamental personality traits in shaping identity attachment and resilience. We do not intend to use personality traits to explain who is on one side or the other, but rather we will use these traits to explain identity retention and identity strength. Finally, we know that affective polarisation is related to 'filter bubbles' and 'echo chambers' as people become unwilling to engage (in person or online) with people from the other side. We therefore also want to explore how identities are retained, and again become entrenched, via the homogeneity of social, geographical and social media networks.Empirically, we plan to answer these questions using a wide variety of state-of-art methods, including survey experiments, lab experiments, repeated cross-sectional surveys and panel surveys. Our results will contribute not only to the discussion about British society and politics after Brexit, but also to more fundamental debates on political identities and democracy. In terms of the 'Governance after Brexit' Call, our project directly addresses two of the Priority Areas, primarily (2) 'UK economy and society 'after Brexit' (Leave/Remain identities)', but also (3) 'The constitution, politics and policy 'after Brexit' (impact on political parties and democracy)'.