Modeling the emergence of affective polarization in the social media society.

ABSTRACT: Rising political polarization in recent decades has hampered and gridlocked policymaking, as well as weakened trust in democratic institutions. These developments have been linked to the idea that new media technology fosters extreme views and political conflict by facilitating self-segregation into "echo chambers" where opinions are isolated and reinforced. This opinion-centered picture has recently been challenged by an emerging political science literature on "affective polarization", which suggests that current polarization is better understood as driven by partisanship emerging as a strong social identity. Through this lens, politics has become a question of competing social groups rather than differences in policy position. Contrary to the opinion-centered view, this identity-centere

SUBMITTER: Tornberg P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8504759 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature