Social Polarization Research Articles

Deliberative mini-publics as learning schools for democracy? Examining deliberation impact on dissatisfied and radical participants of a citizens’ assembly in Poland

ABSTRACT In a global context of democratic challenges such as dissatisfaction and social polarization, research on Western European democracies suggests that deliberative democracy instruments like deliberative mini-publics (DMPs) may provide a solution with their positive impact on participants’ attitudes towards politics and democracy. Despite the proliferation of citizens’ assemblies, especially locally, little is known about DMPs in newer democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, and it is uncertain whether the findings about the virtues of deliberation would hold. This study assesses the impact of a mini-public in Poland, focusing on the Citizens’ Assembly on Energy Poverty, the country's first national-level deliberative initiative. Poland has faced heightened political dissatisfaction due to eight years of right-wing populist governance and the rise of radical ideologies, raising questions about deliberation's impact on dissatisfied and radical participants. Our results confirm the positive impact of deliberation on participants, improving their percepetion of knowledge, political interest, efficacy, and support for mini-publics. However, we find no significant differences of deliberation between dissatisfied, radical participants, and other groups highlighting the universal benefits of deliberation. These inconclusive findings may be due to a common recruitment bias in DMPs, specifically enrolling politically engaged citizens, thus limiting the potential for a learning curve.

LAWFARE: COMO INSTRUMENTOS DA DEMOCRACIA SÃOUSADOS CONTRA O PRÓPRIO ESTADO DEMOCRÁTICO DEDIREITO

This article explores the concept of Lawfare and its application as a strategy to weaken democraciesthrough the manipulation of the legal system for political purposes. We analyze how, by substitutingmilitary force with judicial measures, Lawfare aims to delegitimize opponents and neutralize politicalleaders, creating a crisis of confidence in democratic institutions. The research adopts a qualitativeapproach, based on a literature review and case analysis, highlighting the threat that Lawfare poses tothe Rule of Law and democratic integrity. The conclusion points out that the use of Lawfare not onlycompromises justice but also generates a cycle of distrust and social polarization.

Justicia constitucional y polarización política en EspañaConstitutional justice and political polarization in Spain

Abstract Established in 1980, the Spanish Constitutional Court displayed a pacifying function and remained in a discreet position, relatively immune to external polarization, during its first years of existence. Already in the first decade, certain signs of polarization began to appear. However, the last fifteen years have witnessed an increasing polarization around the Court. This is mainly due to exogenous causes, which have produced a change in the very self-understanding of the Court. The article begins with some conceptual clarifications, in order to highlight the inherent balance of Constitutional Justice. The author then devotes an epigraph to examine the practices that have contributed to polarization from the outside (distribution of appointments by quotas, transfer of social polarization, excessive recusals, political criticism and direct legislative disturbance of its peaceful functioning). Thirdly, he refers to the judicial practices that, as a consequence of the external intervention, seem to have fed back the polarization (leaks, delays, public exposure of the judges and overreaching of jurisdiction). The author concludes with some more general reflections on the relationship between the external and internal causes of polarization around the Court.

Small localities, large conflicts: radical right parties and the politics of integration policymaking in two European medium-sized towns

ABSTRACT Integration policies emerged as a critical focus of local policymaking in smaller towns, driven not only by migration trends in these areas, but also by the growing political influence of local radical right parties (RRPs). This trend occurred across various European countries, including Belgium and Italy, raising new questions about the impact on policy formation of locally embedded RRPs and the social and political polarisation dynamics which foster their growth. Despite growing scholarly attention to the role of local actors in shaping integration policies, these dynamics have mostly been studied in large cities. Therefore, this article aims to explore the effects of RRPs’ rise on integration policies in Ninove (Belgium) and Fermo (Italy), two diversifying and deindustrialising medium-sized towns governed by liberal coalitions, but with a strong opposition presence of RRPs. Adopting a comparative perspective, it utilises document analysis of national and local integration policymaking, complemented by 34 interviews with local actors. The results show that RRPs shape local agenda setting and local governing parties respond by creating policy ambiguity around policies targeting migrants. Specifically, they invest in policies that aim to support integration, but make sustained attempts to disguise that migrants are the target population for these policies.

Food for (political) thought: political inferences from apolitical cues and their social consequences in Italy

ABSTRACT US-based research showed that individuals rely on apolitical cues, like cars or clothes, to form expectations about others’ political preferences. This article uses the concept of ‘politicultural linking’ — producing inferences about others from the perceived alignment between apolitical and political preferences — observing this behavior in Italy, a multi-party European context, through a survey vignette experiment on food preferences. We find that respondents associate vegan/ethnic foods with the political left and carnivore foods with the right. Moreover, ideological self-placement, news media exposure, and cultural consumption are associated with respondents’ willingness to do politicultural linking. Finally, we observe that this behavior affects the propensity to interact and converse with others, with implications for social distance and political polarization dynamics.

Spanish (Neo-)Party Press: The Case of the Digital Native Newspaper La Última Hora and Podemos

ABSTRACT This paper argues that the traditional party press model is currently making a comeback, due to social polarisation, digital technologies and the online-only press, whose partisan and ideological nature provides a favourable context for media outlets acting at the service of a specific political party. In Spain, the consolidation of the online-only press has coincided with the breakdown of the two-party system, leading to the appearance of La Última Hora Noticias (LUH), a digital native newspaper that defines itself as independent, but whose discourse is identifiable with the position of political party Podemos, in what can be regarded as a sort of “neo-party press”. This paper aims to shed light on this trend by analysing LUH in terms of the characteristics of the traditional party press, the topics that it covers, the frequency with which it mentions Podemos and its leaders and how it represents them, and the different parties that it defends or criticises. The results reveal that LUH uses party-press techniques, clearly identifies with Podemos’ political interests, and resorts to formulas that are closer to propaganda than to political journalism.

Inspiring Contributions: Fan Leaders’ Directives and Encouragement in the Chinese Online Celebrity Fan Community

Abstract In the neoliberal era, there is a new phenomenon where numerous fans follow fan leaders’ instructions to make tangible or intangible contributions to support celebrities, which has exacerbated economic polarization. Although past studies have explored fan empowerment in the Internet era, fan leaders’ promotion effect has remained unstudied. This study aimed to discover fan leaders’ role in guiding fans’ contributions in the Chinese fan community. By integrating a two-step flow model and participatory culture theory, it used qualitative content analysis to analyze 410 posts and 972 comments in the Chinese singer Song Yaxuan’s fan community from February 3 to 10, 2023. Through an inductive approach, four main themes were derived from results: (1) task delegation and empowerment; (2) user-friendly instructions and seamless communication; (3) highlighting a sense of crisis and putting pressure on fans; and (4) fostering a collective mindset. The findings revealed fan leaders use different techniques and the top-down structure in the community to encourage fans to give voluntary contributions of money or time to the celebrity’s development. Theoretically, this study showed internal operation logic in Chinese fan community. Practically, the study shed light on how to lessen the harmful consequences of neoliberalism’s features within the Chinese entertainment industry and realize healthy development.

Facebook increases political knowledge, reduces well-being and informational treatments do little to help.

Nearly three billion people actively use Facebook, making it the largest social media platform in the world. Previous research shows that the social media platform reduces users' happiness, while increasing political knowledge. It also may increase partisan polarization. Working to build a scientific consensus, we test whether the potential negative effects of Facebook use can be overcome with the help of minimalist informational interventions that a parallel line of research has shown to be effective at inducing people to be more accurate and civil. We conducted a pre-registered well-powered Facebook deactivation experiment during the 2022 French presidential election. In line with previous research, we find that deactivating Facebook increases subjective well-being and reduces political knowledge. However, deactivating Facebook had no overall effect on the level of political or social polarization during the election. Moreover, we find little evidence that minimalist informational interventions in a field setting helped individuals who deactivated Facebook to become better informed.

From the Screen to the Streets: Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Public Health Professionals

This qualitative study sought to explore the experiences of public health professionals in Canada who were targets of harassment, abuse, and threatening behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health professionals from across Canada who held responsibility for public health measures in their respective jurisdictions participated in in-depth interviews. Using constructivist grounded theory and constant comparative analysis a cycle of violence was identified. Results revealed that as infections and deaths due to COVID-19 began to rise across the globe, participants engaged in efforts to educate the public through mainstream media and social media. While education efforts were generally positively received at the onset of the pandemic, as collective frustration with public health restrictions rose and misinformation began to proliferate, social media fueled outrage and polarization, and public anger began to focus on public health officials. Harassment, abuse, and threats on social media were followed by threats delivered through telephone and paper mail, and finally direct physical threats and confrontation—which were then glorified and amplified on social media. As reported by others, harassment and abuse were particularly virulent for public health professionals who were women or visible minority individuals. We conclude that the pattern of abuse identified in this study is reminiscent of the cycle of violence previously identified with respect to those who become radicalized on social media. These findings serve as a poignant example from which to develop guidelines for all professionals and researchers at risk of online abuse both in the health sector and beyond.

Conspiracy theories, social polarization and crises

Social media facilitate the distribution of conspiracy theories. It is uncertain whether indeed the number of myths and also the number of those who appropriate myths has increased. Conspiracy theories have so far essentially been the subject of sociological and psychosociological research showing ageneral disposition to become infected irrespective of the topic of amyth. Are there specific psychopathological risk factors for becoming infected by conspiracy myths? Are there effective therapeutic or preventive measures? Asystematic search was carried out in PubMed using the query "conspir*[title] AND review" followed by manual selection and appraisal only of publications addressing conspiracy theories in general, i.e. not limited to specific myths, with afocus on systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Moreover, the publications identified were manually screened for further meta-analyses. The search resulted in 166 hits. The available evidence is essentially based on studies using questionnaires, which can clarify only associations but not causalities. The evidence suggests that the strongest correlates of conspiratorial ideation pertain to low cognitive abilities, nonanalytic style of thought resulting in reduced balancing of probabilities before deciding, feelings of loss of control, paranoia, schizotypy and the dark triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, authoritarianism). Specific psychological characteristics are risk factors for conspiratorial ideation. Current research approaches are unsuitable to clarify whether psychiatric disorders are overrepresented. Sociodemographic risk factors include male gender, low level of education, low income, social isolation and are non-specific. Group processes promote, again presumably nonspecifically, conspiracy theories thus contributing to social polarization. The genetic basis and neurobiological mechanisms are unknown. Conspiracy theories were and are used as an instrument of political contention. The enlightened democratic social contract requires free, unbiased thinking. Consequently, the risk factors identified so far facilitate conspiratorial ideation and question the very fundaments of the social contract by impairing unbiased evaluation and decision making. Therefore, prevention is warranted. .

Time lag analysis of real estate supply policies for housing construction projects

ABSTRACT Real estate is not only a vital component of the economy, but it also has a considerable influence on household finance and various social and cultural phenomena. South Korea is experiencing an accelerating trend of economic polarization, which is being driven by low interest rates and growth paradigm. It’s important to recognize that asset disparity, rather than income differences, is the primary cause of this polarization. Therefore, it is crucial for government entities to intervene through real estate policies to address this issue. However, government policies have at times failed to meet expectations, showing limitations in stability and reliability. They have failed to provide precise responses to demand and supply, ranging from implementing excessive regulation policies to considering occupancy rates as current supply rather than as results of previous policies. To address these issues, we applied cross-correlation analysis to derive time lags between procedures in housing construction projects at the national level in South Korea. This approach can provide essential insights to enhance the effectiveness of supply policies by identifying the temporal discrepancies that occur until actual supply is realized.

Social norms, political polarization, and vaccination attitudes: Evidence from a survey experiment in Turkey

This paper examines vaccination as a descriptive social norm in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Using a large-scale survey experiment in Turkey, we first elicit respondents’ vaccination attitudes and show that political affiliation is a strong predictor of it. We then use economic games to measure the extent of outgroup discrimination induced by respondents’ attitudes towards vaccination. We find that while both pro- and anti-vaxxers discriminate against each other substantially, the pro-vaxxers discriminate more than the anti-vaxxers do. This polarization intensifies when pro- and anti-vaxxers perceive a political difference between them. Using randomized informational treatments, we show that a reminder or priming of external threats, appealing to a broadly shared social identity, might mitigate such outgroup discrimination.

Using Relative Distribution Methods to Study Economic Polarization across Categories and Contexts

Using Relative Distribution Methods to Study Economic Polarization across Categories and Contexts

Engaged robots, disengaged workers: Automation and political alienation

AbstractI investigate the impact of automation on political behavior in postindustrial societies, particularly focusing on political disengagement. I argue that structural changes in the labor market lead to political alienation due to increased economic insecurities, diminished resources from lower wages, and greater economic polarization. Using hierarchical logistic modeling with varying intercepts by country, I present evidence from survey data across several advanced democracies. I find that workers exposed to technological change are less likely to feel close to a political party, participate in elections, and take part in protests. The impact of automation on political engagement is smaller among wealthier citizens and in highly unionized environments. The political message from these interaction effects speaks to the reinforcing forces between economic inequality and automation and the role of collective organization. My findings have important implications for understanding the links between structural change in labor markets and politics, especially since disengaged workers are the reservoir for radical right parties.

Social media and political polarization as threats to democracy

Social media and political polarization as threats to democracy

Polarized social media networks: a novel approach to quantify the polarization level of individual users

ABSTRACT This paper presents a novel methodology to quantify users’ polarization within social media networks, focusing on network structure instead of content. We model polarized networks as directed graphs, collecting users’ follower/following connections data, and propose a simple algorithm to compute a Connectivity Score for each node in sub-graphs associated with identified contrary groups of the polarized network. Our method has several advantages: it relies solely on users’ follower/following connections data, which is objective, often public and easy to obtain. Also, this input data is usually memory-efficient, unlike the input data of content-based methods which may require a whole corpus. The algorithm's performance is assessed through application to Twitter's 116th Congressmembers network, comparing against a content analysis method: Sentiment score (using VADER), and two political behavior-based methods: Ideology score (based on co-sponsorship frequency) and Roll Call score (based on bill-voting similarity). The results demonstrate that: (1) users’ choice of connections on the social media can represent polarization behavior; (2) a meaningful correlation between Connectivity Scores and Ideology or Roll Call Scores shows that the political behavior of users is reflected in their social media connections; (3) Democrats’ Twitter following behavior and their bill-voting and bill co-sponsorship behavior (represented by Roll Call and Ideology) are all significantly more correlated than that of Republicans. We believe applying our algorithm in conjunction with other methods is a valuable contribution resulting in more comprehensive analysis of the social media polarization space.

Quantum-inspired modeling of distributed intelligence systems with artificial intelligent agents self-organization

Distributed intelligence systems (DIS) containing natural and artificial intelligence agents (NIA and AIA) for decision making (DM) belong to promising interdisciplinary studies aimed at digitalization of routine processes in industry, economy, management, and everyday life. In this work, we suggest a novel quantum-inspired approach to investigate the crucial features of DIS consisting of NIAs (users) and AIAs (digital assistants, or avatars). We suppose that N users and their avatars are located in N nodes of a complex avatar - avatar network. The avatars can receive information from and transmit it to each other within this network, while the users obtain information from the outside. The users are associated with their digital assistants and cannot communicate with each other directly. Depending on the meaningfulness/uselessness of the information presented by avatars, users show their attitude making emotional binary “like”/“dislike” responses. To characterize NIA cognitive abilities in a simple DM process, we propose a mapping procedure for the Russell’s valence-arousal circumplex model onto an effective quantum-like two-level system. The DIS aims to maximize the average satisfaction of users via AIAs long-term adaptation to their users. In this regard, we examine the opinion formation and social impact as a result of the collective emotional state evolution occurring in the DIS. We show that generalized cooperativity parameters Gi\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$G_i$$\\end{document}, i=1,⋯,N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$i=1,\\dots,N$$\\end{document} introduced in this work play a significant role in DIS features reflecting the users activity in possible cooperation and responses to their avatar suggestions. These parameters reveal how frequently AIAs and NIAs communicate with each other accounting the cognitive abilities of NIAs and information losses within the network. We demonstrate that conditions for opinion formation and social impact in the DIS are relevant to the second-order non-equilibrium phase transition. The transition establishes a non-vanishing average information field inherent to information diffusion and long-term avatar adaptation to their users. It occurs above the phase transition threshold, i.e. at Gi>1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$G_i>1$$\\end{document}, which implies small (residual) social polarization of the NIAs community. Below the threshold, at weak AIA–NIA coupling (Gi≤1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$G_i\\le 1$$\\end{document}), many uncertainties in the DIS inhibit opinion formation and social impact for the DM agents due to the information diffusion suppression; the AIAs self-organization within the avatar–avatar network is elucidated in this limit. To increase the users’ impact, we suggest an adaptive approach by establishing a network-dependent coupling rate with their digital assistants. In this case, the mechanism of AIA control helps resolve the DM process in the presence of some uncertainties resulting from the variety of users’ preferences. Our findings open new perspectives in different areas where AIAs become effective teammates for humans to solve common routine problems in network organizations.

New and emerging perspectives for technology assessment: Malevolent creativity and civil security

The characteristics of new technologies can cause significant harm to society. This does not only apply to unintended consequences, but even more so when the technologies are used for malicious purposes. The latter can be observed in the domain of civil security. Here, negative developments such as social polarization, increasing radicalization, and democratic regression alongside a deteriorating security situation are increasingly associated with technological innovation and malevolent creativity. As society becomes more and more aware of such correlations, technology assessment is called upon to provide orientation knowledge. This requires appropriate approaches and knowledge tools to assess the potential role of technology in relation to radicalization and political extremism.

Malevolent creativity and civil security: The ambivalence of emergent technologies

The characteristics of new technologies can cause significant harm to society. This does not only apply to unintended consequences, but even more so when the technologies are used for malicious purposes. The latter can be observed in the domain of civil security. Here, negative developments such as social polarization, increasing radicalization, and democratic regression alongside a deteriorating security situation are increasingly associated with technological innovation and malevolent creativity. As society becomes more and more aware of such correlations, technology assessment is called upon to provide orientation knowledge. This requires appropriate approaches and knowledge tools to assess the potential role of technology in relation to radicalization and political extremism.

Whos the Bad Guy? Politician, News Press, or Social Media?

Ideally, news presses and social media platforms act like critical bridges between politicians and the public. However, politicians may exercise control over news presses while leveraging social media to manipulate public opinion, fueling what has become known as the outrage economy. Such dynamics contribute to a polarized society, wherein information is often driven by bias and divisiveness. Utilizing the "Four-Part Dynamics" model, this article offers a comprehensive analysis of the interaction between politicians, news presses, social media platforms, and the public. The analysis uncovers an information flow cycle, where social media and news presses are mere tools for politicians to spread biased information. It provides an overarching view of a system where media entities are not simply bridges but are actively utilized for strategic purposes by politicians. Unlike prior studies that focus on segmented connections, this research aims at understanding the entire system. It contributes to the field by delivering a nuanced understanding of an interconnected system of politicians, news press, social media platforms, and the public central to modern democratic societies. Moreover, actionable suggestions are provided to alleviate the issues of social polarization.