Echoes of us and them: Populist Narratives and Affective Polarization in Hungarian Discourse on X

Abstract

This article examines whether populist narrative frames used by Hungarian citizens on X relate to the emotional tone and cohesion expressed in user comments. The analysis draws on 240 Hungarian-language comments collected across three salient themes, namely migration, the European Union, and Russia, and integrates automated frame identification with human-coded assessments of tone and cohesion. The study finds that emotional tone, rather than narrative framing, is the factor most closely associated with cohesive or non-cohesive discursive patterns. Positive tone aligns with expressions of solidarity, while negative tone is linked to more fragmented or antisystem orientations. These results suggest that affective valence plays a central role in shaping how online political talk consolidates or destabilizes discursive bonds across topics.