The 2026 election is starting to look less like a dispute between proposals and more like a clash between camps that no longer recognize each other. A survey by AtlasIntel, in partnership with Arko, captured how Brazilians see those who vote in the opposite camp. The most recent data indicate a more determined voter, but also more closed to dialogue.
For 57.4% of those interviewed, voters of the most rejected candidate are “manipulated or ignorant people”. Another 31% believe that these voters have “serious character flaws”.
The survey was discussed in the Mapa de Risco program, a policy program of the InfoMoney this Friday (3). The view of AtlasIntel policy analyst, Yuru Sanches, is that this difficulty in communication has already become a central part of the political scenario.
“You don’t see the other person as having an intellectual role in your choice, you see them as a mass of maneuver”, he stated.
The speech reflects an environment in which the political opponent is no longer seen as someone with a legitimate opinion and starts to be treated as someone manipulated. This kind of insight helps explain why polarization remains so resilient.
At the same time, the very logic of voting reinforces this movement. “If I’m not going to vote out of appreciation, I’m going to vote because I want to block people I don’t like”, said Sanches when commenting on voter behavior.
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In practice, this means that the voting decision is no longer constructed solely by affinity and begins to be guided by rejection. The voter does not necessarily choose who he prefers, but who he considers to be less worse in an already defined scenario.
This pattern appears at a time when the two poles remain quite consolidated. There is a loyal base on each side, but also a group that positions itself in opposition to the opponent, and not out of adherence to a political project.
“You have these intermediate rejection poles, which provide circumstantial support”, explained another excerpt from the analysis.
This circumstantial support was decisive in 2022 and tends to return to the center of the dispute. But this time, with voters even more suspicious and less willing to review positions throughout the campaign.
The effect of this is a more rigid environment, in which there is less room for relevant changes. The trend, according to the analyst, is one of a closed dispute, with little room for growth outside the already established bases.
With less programmatic debate, the focus should shift to the direct confrontation between candidacies. And, in this type of scenario, the shortest path is usually to exploit the opponent’s weaknesses.
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AtlasIntel interviewed 4,224 people between March 16 and 23, 2026. The margin of error is two percentage points, with a confidence level of 95%. The survey was registered with the Superior Electoral Court under number BR-06058/2026 and was financed with its own resources.
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