Affective polarization between partisans, i.e. strong dislike between party supporters, is potentially troubling for liberal democracy, as such dislike can result in prejudice, discrimination and the acceptance of violations of democratic norms. Hence, recent research has focused on how affective dislike can be reduced. One possibility is that elite signals matter. When parties say and show that they can work together, affective dislike may be lower. We test this expectation in a survey experiment conducted in Austria in November 2021. Respondents were exposed to vignettes – invented news stories – that implied that a coalition between two rival parties was now likely. Our results show that coalition signals of an in-party and an outparty reduce affective distance towards the out-party. A major reason for
this is likely to be that such signals reduce the perceived ideological distance between the two parties. In addition, coalition signals can even influence outparty affect among those whose in-party is not involved in the potential
coalition. Overall, our results show that cooperation between rivals will play an important role in reducing affective distance.