A Country Divided? Polarisation and identity after Brexit

脱欧公投使英国成为一个政治上分裂的国家：“脱欧派”和“留欧派”成为新的政治和社会身份，这些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，英国脱欧带来了巨大的社会分歧，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脱欧身份，我们仍然知之甚少：为什么这些身份对一些人如此重要，对另一些人却很疏远？既然英国已经离开欧盟，这些身份认同是正在消退，还是在本质上发生变化？理解和解决英国退欧两极分化的后果需要了解其基础。这些身份的恢复力越大，对民主对话和合法性的潜在负面影响就越大。从某种程度上说，脱欧身份根植于更深层次的社会文化价值观分歧，这种两极分化可能会持续很长一段时间，即使这些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，我们似乎也有理由预计，这些身份对大多数人来说可能会变得不那么重要。不管怎样，我们都需要了解这些身份是如何变化的，而且至关重要的是，我们需要知道哪些人仍然忠于他们的英国退欧身份。由于人们对新的政治身份是如何产生和演变的知之甚少，英国脱欧为理解政治群体依恋的发展提供了一个重要的案例。最终，我们希望对政治身份的本质以及这些身份是如何变化的提供新的基本见解。我们的核心论点是，要理解脱欧分裂对英国社会的长期影响，仅仅追踪有多少人认为自己是“脱欧派”和“留欧派”显然是必要的，但这是不够的。了解这些群体的规模很重要，但我们也需要追踪这些身份的强度和情感强度，并评估影响这些身份随时间变化的因素。首先，我们感兴趣的是物质利益如何影响身份的变化。为此，我们想研究现实世界的变化是如何影响政治身份的，特别是那些我们知道因英国脱欧而变得更好或更糟的人。其次，我们希望运用社会心理学的见解，了解基本人格特质在塑造身份依恋和弹性方面的作用。我们不打算用人格特征来解释谁是一方或另一方，而是我们将用这些特征来解释身份保留和身份强度。最后，我们知道情感两极分化与“过滤气泡”和“回音室”有关，因为人们变得不愿意与另一方的人（面对面或在线）接触。因此，我们也想探索如何通过社会、地理和社交媒体网络的同质性来保留身份，并再次变得根深蒂固。从经验上讲，我们计划使用各种各样的最先进的方法来回答这些问题，包括调查实验、实验室实验、重复横断面调查和小组调查。我们的研究结果不仅有助于对英国脱欧后英国社会和政治的讨论，也有助于对政治认同和民主的更根本的辩论。就“脱欧后的治理”呼吁而言，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)'.