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Sammanfattning

This qualitative study is an investigation in how affective po- larisation and social identity is formed in individuals who are part of a political organisation. This is to find patterns in how being part of a political group affects one’s view of people with other political ideologies. The gap in the current rese- arch field are qualitative studies in countries with multi-party systems as well as asking questions in the shape of scenarios to discover affective polarisation. The method chosen was a form of a vignette study which combined both questions and hypothetical scenarios. After the interviews were coded in themes related to existing theories they were categorised into themes. The findings were that individuals have a more posi- tive description of parties and party members that are closer to them on a left-right scale which also meant that if an indi- vidual belonged to a party that was further from the middle then they also had more extreme views on parties on the op- posite end. We also found that individuals belonging to a party both included themselves in the group when expressing their opinions as well as being aware that they put their own personal belief to the side when representing their party to outsiders and would promote and support ideas that they don’t necessarily agree with. Thus, the conclusion of this study is that while political organisations help individuals become active members of democracy and the political sy- stem they also risk making individuals more extreme in their views towards people with other ideologies or political affili- ations.