Research: Social Media Truly Reduces Political Polarization

Earlier analysis has discovered that social media has a polarizing impact, creating echo chambers the place individuals solely work together with those that share comparable political beliefs. “Polarized Crowds on Twitter will not be arguing. They’re ignoring each other whereas pointing to totally different net assets and utilizing totally different hashtags,” said a Pew report.

Nevertheless, a brand new research suggests in any other case. Researcher Pablo Barberá of New York College has published a study that examines how social media can truly scale back political polarization. He argues that social media assist customers join with “weak ties” (for instance, highschool classmates you’d by no means in any other case communicate with). Barberá hypothesized that “weak ties are typically with people who find themselves extra politically heterogeneous than residents’ speedy private networks, [and] this publicity reduces political extremism.”

Barberá studied Twitter customers in Germany, Spain and the U.S. by measuring their ideological positions and utilizing these measurements to estimate the perfect factors for every nation. He additionally matched the names of sure Twitter customers with voter information in a handful of U.S. states, and located:

Opposite to earlier leads to the literature on social media and political polarization, I discover that social media doesn’t improve political extremism. My evaluation offers proof that people who’re embedded in heterogenous private networks and who’re uncovered to dissonant political content material develop into extra average over time…

Probably the most vital change related to the elevated utilization of social media websites is the frequency of communication exchanges past probably the most fast private networks. Residents at the moment are uncovered not solely to their shut pals’ opinions, but in addition to political content material shared by their co-staff, childhood associates, distant kinfolk, and different individuals with whom they type weak ties.

(H/T NiemanLab)

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