Ideological Homogeneity Research Articles

Explaining Differential Involvement in Cross-Movement Coalitions on Social Media: the #StopHateForProfit Campaign

Social movements form coalitions to gain leverage and achieve mutual goals, however little is known about how coalitions work, especially in the realm of social media. In this paper we examine the 2020 #StopHateForProfit coalition which pressured corporations to pull their advertising spending from Facebook because of its permissive content moderation policies toward disinformation and hate. From the digital traces of the campaign on Twitter, we explain the participation differentials among coalition social movement organisations (SMO) partners and their followers. The findings show that the coalition's centrality to movement agenda, the ideological homogeneity of followership, and the SMO partners and their followership's central positions in the communication network led to the highest and most time persistent participation rates. Our counter-intuitive findings extend the literature on social movements coalitions by suggesting that multi-issues, “big tent” movements with ideological breadth may find invoking the core of their large followership rather challenging despite the ease of participation afforded by social media.

In-party love spreads more efficiently than out-party hate in online communities

In this article, we present the findings of a comprehensive longitudinal social network analysis conducted on Twitter across four consecutive election campaigns in Spain, spanning from 2015 to 2019. Our focus is on the discernible trend of increasing partisan and ideological homogeneity within interpersonal exchanges on this social media platform, alongside high levels of networking efficiency measured through average retweeting. This diachronic study allows us to observe how dynamics of party competition might contribute to perpetuating and strengthening network ideological and partisan homophily, creating ‘epistemic bubbles’ in Twitter, yet showing a greater resistance to transforming them into ‘partisan echo-chambers.’ Specifically, our analysis reveals that the rise of a new radical right-wing party (RRP), Vox, has heightened ideological homogeneity among users across the entire ideological spectrum. However, this process has not been uniform. While users aligned with mainstream political parties consistently share content that reinforces in-party affinity, resulting in highly efficient ‘epistemic bubbles,’ the emergence of the RRP has given rise to a distinct group of users associated with the most extreme partisan positions, characterized by a notable proportion of out-partisan hostility content, which has fostered the creation of low-efficient 'partisan echo-chambers.'

Mapping environment-focused social media, audiovisual media and art, in Sweden: How a diversity of voices and issues is combined with ideological homogeneity

Abstract Employing mapping research, this study mapped the populations of environment-focused social media, audiovisual media and art, in Sweden, over a one-year period. The study explored what is being communicated about the environment in Sweden in these fields, by whom, and how it circulates in diverse communicative spaces. The research identified 502 units across the three fields and a multitude of voices addressing environmental issues through these fields. These channels and voices give visibility to diverse topics and perspectives about the environment and human-nature relations. Simultaneously, there is considerable homogeneity, as a majority of the identified social media, audiovisual media and art units clearly align with ecocentric positions that contest the hegemony of anthropocentrism. These ecocentric voices strongly oppose the dominance of human-centered apprehensions of nature that legitimate nature’s exploitation and the drainage of natural resources for economic profit. Instead, they argue for structural changes promoting environmental protection and the rebalancing of human-nature relations.

Semiotics of the fictional worlds: ideological (in)homogeneity of the transmedia franchises (by the example of fantasy stories and stories about superheroes)

The article presents the results of a semiotic analysis of fictional worlds in transmedia franchises. Fictional worlds of a number of popular fantasy narratives as well as stories about superheroes were chosen as the subject matter. In line with the goal stated in the introduction, this study focuses on how visual and narrative conventions encourage the circulation of certain connotative meanings between the various works of the transmedia franchise, maintaining the ideological homogeneity of its fictional world, as well as how a change in ideology can further develop the franchise and expand its fictional world. The work explored the connection between the concept of ideology and the opposition of good and evil in mass narratives. It was shown exactly how popular culture tries to demonstrate «genetic relationship» with literary classics and folklore through a rigid division of characters into «bad» and «good». A semiotic analysis of a number of transmedia narratives has revealed how the use of visual conventions in the representation of good and evil provides a preferred reading of the narrative by audience members. In a broader perspective, it is concluded that modern mass narratives, seeking to expand the target audience, are characterized by certain ideological flexibility, abandoning the ideology of white patriarchal capitalism, characteristic of earlier works.

Preaching to the Choir or Proselytizing to the Opposition: Examining the Use of Campaign Websites in State Legislative Elections

AbstractThe Internet has spawned a renewed hope for facilitating increased access to candidate information for voters. However, the nationalization and polarization of constituents have left many candidates averse to the risks of personalized campaigns, especially in subnational elections. Under what conditions are state candidates willing to establish a personalized web presence as opposed to relying on partisanship? This study introduces a novel dataset of campaign website presence for the 2018 and 2020 state legislative elections. During this time, approximately one-third of state legislative candidates opted to forgo a personalized campaign website. District-level constituent ideology was significantly correlated with the website use, even when controlling for district education, income, age, and race, and the candidate’s competitive position. District ideological homogeneity encouraged website use across both parties, while adversarial district ideology corresponded to low website use among Republicans. The results indicate that state legislative candidates, especially Republican candidates, are far more likely to preach to their partisan choir rather than incur the risks of proselytizing among their partisan opposition. The results reiterate the divergent responses of the political parties regarding partisan polarization and shed light on the impact of nationalization within state legislative campaigns.

“Ye Double‐Minded”: Black Parishioners’ Attitudes toward Nonaffirming Church Climates

AbstractHomophobia in the black community has been largely attributed to the Black Church's conservative views concerning sexual orientation. Prior research demonstrates that black congregations are generally nonaffirming of nonheterosexuality; however, few studies have investigated black congregants’ responses to their churches’ climates regarding sexuality. Using in‐depth interviews, this paper examines the extent to which black Christians are content with their congregations’ nonaffirming climates. Findings indicate that although some black parishioners are content with or indifferent to their churches’ climates, most respondents advocate for a change in how their congregations address sexual orientation, specifically calling for open conversations about sexuality. Furthermore, an examination of the language respondents used to evaluate congregational climates suggests discussions of sexuality in churches that humanize and encourage empathy for nonheterosexual identities may help facilitate such conversations. These results challenge assumptions of ideological homogeneity within religious organizations and could inform strategies to promote nonheterosexual inclusion in congregations.

How Is the American Foreign Policy Establishment Structured? A Multiple Correspondence Analysis of the US China Field

AbstractChallenging visions of the US national security “Establishment” as either hamstrung by ideological homogeneity bordering on groupthink, or riven by irreconcilable party political divisions, we deploy multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) to uncover empirically the structure of the China segment of the US national security community. MCA—a form of geometric data analysis—finds latent structures in categorical datasets. Using an original dataset of organizations with a strong presence on China issues, we show that the China organizational field is far from homogenous, but is split less between left and right than over degree of political engagement, separating older think tanks and cultural organizations from business-focused research and consulting firms, and academic/research institutions outside from politically oriented groups located primarily within the Beltway. We explore our findings using the Trump and Obama administrations’ choice of locations to give speeches and remarks on US–China relations.

Political Regimes, Party Ideological Homogeneity and Polarization

Political Regimes, Party Ideological Homogeneity and Polarization

When (Non)Differences Make a Difference: The Roles of Demographic Diversity and Ideological Homogeneity in Overcoming Ideologically Biased Decision Making

Increasing demographic diversity is undoubtedly important and can aid in debiasing decision makers. Yet, the promises of demographic diversity are not always realized due to social integration problems. We consider why and for whom differences combined with homogeneity make a difference for groups in terms of integratively complex thinking and ideological decision making. Although research has shown that decision makers often rely on political biases, that work has not addressed when and why decision-making groups are able to overcome these biases—a pervasive concern in today’s politically polarized social milieu. Drawing on the common in-group identity model and research on integrative complexity, we theorize that demographic diversity ultimately yields less ideological decision making because it prompts integrative complexity; however, demographic diversity only accrues this benefit in the presence of ideological homogeneity. We also reason that the relationship between integrative complexity and reduced ideological decision making emerges for more conservative (versus more liberal) groups. We find support for our expectations using a natural experiment of judges on the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Supplemental analyses indicate that working within a demographically diverse and ideologically homogeneous group also positively predicts integrative complexity in future decision-making groups. Finally, we find that demographic and ideological diversity can substitute for one another, but no additional integrative complexity benefits accrue when both are present. We discuss implications of this research in light of the ongoing conversation about the value of diversity and today’s polarized political climate. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1647 .

Citizenship Under Pressure: Mapping Debates Over Religious Freedom in the Second Decade in Quebec

In recent years and following a long process of secularization, social change, and immigration, Quebec is currently a diverse environment with rich dynamics around Quebecness, citizenship, identity politics, and reasonable accommodations. Following sensitive political events, Quebec saw many battles over secularism and religious pluralism. A series of debates were enmeshed with political debates about the true meaning of secularism and embroiled with fear of religion and immigrants. This ethnographic inquiry maps out the existing tendencies during different periods of repercussions and tensions around Quebec’s secularism. The article outlines key clustering patterns and ethico-religious hierarchies and their genesis while responding to the 2013 Charter of Values of Quebec, the debates on the 2014 attacks against Canadian soldiers by presumed ISIS members in Canada, and the 2019 secularism law, Bill 21, adopted by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government in June 2019. The fieldwork was conducted between May 2013 and June 2020 and is based on 44 events and interviews with major key participants (Catholics, Muslims, Secularists) in Montreal. The main findings show that the dynamics behind the incongruities within social groups appear to be generating overlapping alliances; while discourses of many groups seem to be unified in appearance, they are divided into many layers, which serves the purpose of opposing or supporting the government’s policies and legislation. Partnerships created in such conditions remain ephemeral, restrained with an allegiance to the same political tendency, and controlled by cultural or ideological homogeneity. Furthermore, there is more hate and violence when perpetrators believe that they benefit from anonymity.

Temática del proyecto de ley y cohesión en la votación de las coaliciones en el Congreso de Chile, 2010-2017

Studies on the cohesion by legislators in roll call votes have reported an effect of being a member of the ruling coalition, the origin and relevance of the bill, the electoral cycle and other institutional design features. But the theory also links voting cohesion to the subject of the bill, an issue not sufficiently addressed on studies on party-level cohesion in Latin American presidential democracies. This article tests four hypotheses including the subject of the bill on the 6468 roll call votes in the Chamber of Deputies of Chile between 2010 and 2017 legislative years. Rightwing legislators are more cohesive in roll call votes on issues related to defense and citizen security. Contrary to expectations, leftwing legislators are not more cohesive on social issues or human rights. Ruling coalition legislators are less cohesive on budget votes. The subject of the bill seems more important for rightwing legislators than leftwing ones; although it is speculated that this might be due in Chile to the fact that the rightwing coalition is comprised by a smaller number of parties which shares more ideological homogeneity.

Ideological homophily in board composition and interlock networks: Do liberal directors inhibit viewpoint diversity?

AbstractResearch issueA consistent feature of social networks is homophily: the tendency for people to interact with similar others. Psychological and sociological research suggests that homophily is most pronounced along ideological lines, with conflicting evidence as to whether this tendency is higher among individuals who hold liberal or conservative beliefs. Based on this literature, we conduct the first study of ideological homophily in two key organizational networks: the intrafirm connections among directors on the board and the interfirm connections created by board interlocks.Research insightsIn a panel of 408 U.S. firms between 2000 and 2020, we find that liberalism increases homophily both within and between boards. Furthermore, we find that homophily has decreased over time but that this has been driven by conservative boards while the effect of liberalism has strengthened in recent years. These findings provide the first evidence for an ideological component in the composition of intra‐ and interorganizational networks.Academic implicationsMost research on director selection and interlock formation has focused on situational or demographic antecedents. Our findings contribute to the development of a broader theoretical framework that accounts for individual dispositional factors in these processes.Practitioner implicationsOur findings bring attention to the issue of ideological homogeneity in firms. Given the growth of homophilic tendencies among liberal directors in recent years, we suggest that it may be increasingly important for directors to become aware, and mitigate the effects, of their ideological biases in order to maintain cognitive diversity in information networks and decision making.

Bright lines and fault lines: the politics of refuge in independence-era Mozambique

ABSTRACT This article focuses on independence-era Mozambique, examining how currents of ideological homogeneity, rooted in the 1960s struggle against colonial rule, contributed to displacement in the 1980s. Frelimo, the movement that fought Portuguese colonial rule and took power at independence in 1975, crafted a vision of political life intolerant of any challenge to orthodoxy, leaving those who did not share its vision no place in its polity. Once white supremacist-sponsored political violence evolved into a vernacular civil war, beginning in late 1982, the country saw a destructive displacement of enormous proportions. As a prologue to this crisis, the article considers how people who did not share Frelimo’s political vision underwent a political displacement and sought refuge from ideology. Come the crisis of the 1980s, these “proto-refugees” – pre-positioned to withdraw territorially – became physically as well as politically displaced, and thus understood as refugees in conventional thinking.

Social watching the 2020 presidential and vice-presidential debates: the effect of ideological homogeneity and partisan identity strength

This study presents a novel test of the effects of social watching a live campaign debate. We recruited just over 500 participants to view one of the two 2020 presidential campaign debates or the vice-presidential debate in real time via Zoom watch rooms. We experimentally manipulated the social dynamics of these Zoom watches to include either ideologically homogenous real-time chat, heterogenous chat, or no chat. We found asymmetry in the extent to which these chat manipulations exacerbated biased information processing. Participants in the homogenous chat Zoom sessions were more likely to provide negative debate performance evaluations of the out-group candidate but were no more likely to provide positive evaluations of the in-group candidate. Stronger partisans exhibited more bias in performance evaluation regardless of chat condition but, contrary to our expectations, did not engage in more chat compared to weak partisans.

Assessing the ideological homogeneity in entrepreneurial finance research by highly cited publications

Entrepreneurs play crucial roles in global sustainable development, but limited financial resources constrain their performance and survival rate. Despite the global presence of entrepreneurship, the literature of entrepreneurial finance is suspected to be Western ideologically homogenous. Thus, this study aims at examining this phenomenon by employing the mindsponge mechanism and bibliometric analyses. 412 highly cited publications extracted from the Web of Science database are analyzed to find Western ideological dominance and low tolerance towards heterogeneity in entrepreneurial finance’s core ideologies. The dominance and low tolerance are consistent across author level, institution level, and country level, revealing strong evidence for the existence of Western ideological homogeneity. We recommend editors, reviewers, and authors diversify research topics proactively and enhance knowledge exchange to avoid shortfalls of ideological homogeneity. Moreover, the synthesis of the mindsponge mechanism and bibliometric analyses are suggested as a possible way to evaluate the state of ideological diversity in other scientific disciplines.

On the social and conceptual structure of the 50-year research landscape in entrepreneurial finance.

In recent decades, drastic changes in global social-economic situations have led to significant shifts in the financial market for entrepreneurial firms, thus resulting in changes in entrepreneurial finance discipline. The current body of literature, despite its significant growth, has not provided an overview landscape of this research area. Consequently, this study aims to fill this gap by employing the bibliometric analysis of 6902 articles from 1970 to 2019 extracted from the Web of Science database. By doing so, this paper attempts to provide an overview of the discipline's research output, social and conceptual structure, and offer strategies facilitating the scientific development within the field. The findings indicate that entrepreneurial finance is a young and growing field with an exponential increase in the number of publications (approx. 19.75 percent per year) and rising collaboration tendency among authors. The 1991–2000 period is a crucial milestone of the field thanks to the remarkable growth and impact of studies during this period as well as simultaneously occurring historical events. We also notice a sign of Western ideological homogeneity from the collaboration networks and lists of most productive authors, institutions, and countries. Additionally, using thematic mapping, five major research domains are identified: “venture capital”, “crowdfunding”, “SMEs finance”, “social entrepreneurship finance”, “IPO and corporate governance”. Based on these findings, we raise the concern of lacking diversity in entrepreneurial finance research and propose strategies for authors, journals, and policymakers to diversify the literature.

Keeping channels open or screening out? The digital practices of Baltic Russian-speakers during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

ABSTRACT Inspired by Couldry’s conceptualisation of media-related practices, the authors investigate the ways Baltic Russian-speakers manage their digital information-seeking (sources of news) practices and interaction (communication partners). Amidst the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the ensuing tensions between Russia and the West, we consider how these digital practices lead to ideological heterogeneity or homogeneity. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has put the transnational affiliations and practices of Baltic Russophones under pressure. This paper therefore asks how the polarised political environment and securitisation of the cross-border media practices of Baltic Russian-speakers by the national political elite has shaped how individuals respond by keeping channels open or screening content out. Based on a mixed-method study of the digital practices of Russian-speakers living in Estonia and Latvia, the authors argue that practices supporting digital homophily and digital heterophily are not mutually exclusive but appear in specific configurations. The avoidance of counter-oppositional views (screening out) is not absolute but rather mixed with practices that open channels from time to time.

Opinion-based Homogeneity on YouTube

Abstract When addressing public concerns such as the existence of politically like-minded communication spaces in social media, analyses of complex political discourses are met with increasing methodological challenges to process communication data properly. To address the extent of political like-mindedness in online communication, we argue that it is necessary to focus not only on ideological homogeneity in online environments, but also on the extent to which specific political questions are discussed in a uniform manner. This study proposes an innovative combination of computational methods, including natural language processing and social network analysis, that serves as a model for future research examining the evolution of opinion climates in online networks. Data were gathered on YouTube, enabling the assessment of users’ expressed opinions on three political issues (i.e., adoption rights for same-sex couples, headscarf rights, and climate change). Challenging widely held assumptions on discursive homogeneity online, the results provide evidence for a moderate level of connections between dissimilar YouTube comments but few connections between agreeing comments. The findings are discussed in light of current computational communication research and the vigorous debate on the prevalence of like-mindedness in online networks.

Western Ideological Homogeneity in Entrepreneurial Finance Research: Evidence From Highly Cited Publications

Entrepreneurs play crucial roles in global sustainable development, but limited financial resources constrain their performance and survival rate. Entrepreneurial finance discipline is, therefore, born to explore the connection between finance and entrepreneurship. Despite the global presence of entrepreneurship, the literature of entrepreneurial finance is suspected to be Western ideologically homogeneous. Thus, the objective of this study is to examine the existence of Western ideological homogeneity in entrepreneurial finance literature. Employing the mind-sponge mechanism and biblio-metric analyses (Y-index and social structure), we analyze 412 highly cited publications extracted from Web of Science database and find Western ideological dominance as well as weak tolerance towards heterogeneity in the set of core ideologies of entrepreneurial finance. These results are consistent across author-, institution-, and country-levels, which reveals strong evidence for the existence of Western ideological homogeneity in the field. We recommend editors, reviewers, and authors to have proactive actions to diversify research topics and enhancing knowledge exchange to avoid the shortfalls of ideological homogeneity. Moreover, the synthesis of mind-sponge mechanism and biblio-metric analyses are suggested as a possible way to evaluate the state of ideological diversity in other scientific disciplines.

On the 50-Year Research Landscape of Entrepreneurial Finance: A Sign of Western Ideological Homogeneity?

Financing issues play essential roles in the survival and development of entrepreneurial firms. The current study, employing the bibliometric analysis of 6,903 articles from 1970 to 2019, extracted from Web of Science database, aims to provide an overview of the discipline’s landscape and major scientific domains to facilitate scientific development within the field. Entrepreneurial finance is a young and growing field with exponential growth in the number of publications (with 19.54% per year) and rising collaboration tendency among authors. Journal of Business Venturing is the most prestigious journal, while Sustainability is noteworthy for its rapid contribution to the field. We also note a sign of Western ideological homogeneity from the collaboration networks and lists of top authors, institutions, and countries. Besides, using keyword co-occurrence analysis, seven major research domains are identified: “venture capital”, “crowdfunding”, “SMEs finance”, “social entrepreneurship finance”, “financial risk”, “microfinance”, and “human-social-financial capital”. Based on these findings, we raise the concern of lacking diversity in entrepreneurial finance research and provide several recommendations for future potential research directions.