M1 Crossed identities vs aligned identities

Topic

This dimension can manifest in two modes, depending on how the various available group identities—political, ethnic, religious, and generational—relate to one another within the same population: a mode of *cross-cutting identities*, where membership in a group along one identity line does not predict membership in a specific group along the others; and a mode of *aligned identities*, where the different identity lines systematically coincide. The variable triggering the shift between these two modes is the correlation among these distinct identity lines: low correlation characterizes cross-cutting identities, while high correlation characterizes aligned identities—the latter constituting a form of structural polarization.

In the cross-cutting identity mode, any "us vs. them" boundary drawn along a single identity line—such as politics—divides people who nonetheless continue to share group membership along other lines with those on the opposing side: an individual might belong to the opposing camp politically yet share the same ethnic, religious, or generational group as a large portion of that political out-group. This overlap acts as a natural check on extreme affective polarization, as hostility toward the out-group along one identity line clashes with bonds of shared belonging along the others.

In the aligned identity mode, by contrast, the various identity lines systematically coincide: the group standing in opposition along the political line tends to be the same out-group found along ethnic, religious, and generational lines, with no overlaps to temper the hostility. It is this mode—rather than that of cross-cutting identities—that provides the most fertile ground for extreme affective polarization, closed echo chambers, and the violent radicalization of a subgroup to reinforce one another, unchecked by any shared sense of belonging; when all lines of identity point in the same direction, each new source of disagreement compounds the others instead of contending with cross-cutting ties that might have moderated it.

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