Since the attack on the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021, academic interest has intensified in demonstrating how affective polarisation generates political violence. I review the main studies to date on this topic and conclude that individual affective polarisation does not lead to a greater propensity to justify or support violence. On the contrary, negative personality traits are the main predictors of pro-violent attitudes in the context of partisan conflict. Polarised environments trigger violent episodes because they interact with some mindsets predisposed to such reactions, but these mindsets are not common among affectively polarised voters. The misconception of attributing a direct causal influence of affective polarisation on political violence may be due to a confusion in the understanding of the key concept.