@article{ref1,
title="What information drives political polarization? Comparing the effects of in-group praise, out-group derogation, and evidence-based communications on polarization",
journal="International journal of press/politics, The",
year="2022",
author="Wojcieszak, Magdalena and Sobkowicz, Paweł and Yu, Xudong and Bulat, Beril",
volume="27",
number="2",
pages="325-352",
abstract="This project differentiates between communication that praises one's political in-group (in-group praise), attacks the opposition (out-group derogation), or focuses on policy details (evidence based), testing their effects on network and attitude polarization. We begin with an agent-based model, which shows that congenial evidence-based exchanges polarize the network and the inclusion of identity-driven communications leads to greater polarization. Once out-group derogation reaches a certain threshold, the network of agents splits into two groups, yet the polarizing effects of in-group praise are yet stronger and emerge more rapidly (i.e., a lower threshold of in-group praise is needed to polarize the network). Using an experimental design on a sample of American partisans, we offer a partial validation of the model. In-group praise and out-group derogation polarize attitudes more than balanced evidence-based news, but not more than congenial evidence-based news. Identity-driven news also has no effects on affective polarization. This multidisciplinary evidence shows that the nature of political content matters.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1940-1612",
doi="10.1177/19401612211004418",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/19401612211004418"
}