polarization

Partisan segregation among TV audiences goes even further than left- and right-leaning sources, we found. We identified seven broad buckets of TV news sources, then used these archetypes to determine what a typical unvaried TV news diet really looks like.We found that compared to online audiences, partisan TV news consumers tend not to stray too far from their narrow sets of preferred news sources. For example, most Americans who consume mostly MSNBC rarely consume news from any other source besides CNN. Similarly, most…

People who get their news from MSNBC rarely stray beyond MSNBC and CNN for their news consumption. Credit: Mikeblog/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA The past two election cycles have seen an explosion of attention given to "echo chambers," or communities where a narrow set of views makes people less likely to challenge their own opinions. Much of this concern has focused on the rise of social media, which has radically transformed the…

A case study from Chile’s last presidential electionsOn December 21st took place one of the most disputed presidential races in the history of Chile. The two-round voting system left all traditional parties behind in a context of political antagonism that had not been seen for quite a long time and led to the disqualification of conventional parties.But the purpose of this article is not to discuss politics. Instead, it’s about investigating one interesting fact about this election: the number of expressed votes (i.e.,…

The European Union flag pictured next to the Union Jack. Credit: Rocco Dipoppa, Unsplash CC0 (creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) In a new study, a brief, audio-guided, befriending-themed meditation reduced affective polarization between people on the "Remain" versus "Leave" sides of the U.K.'s Brexit referendum. Otto Simonsson of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues present these findings in…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain If there's an online discussion about race, using the term "white privilege" can create a polarized situation, say University of Michigan researchers. …

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The latest USC Polarization Index reveals that since President Joe Biden was elected, overall levels of polarization in the United States remain dangerously high, spurred on by increasing controversy around reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ issues. …