Mobile Internet and the Rise of Political Tribalism in Europe

Narratives on migration and political polarization: How the emphasis in narratives can drive us apart

“…Closely connected to this is the quickly growing strand of literature concerning social media and populism. Although Fujiwara, Müller, and Schwarz (2021) have found no positive effect of Twitter on the Republican vote share in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, Manacorda, Tabellini, and Tesei (2022) provide evidence of a positive effect of mobile internet access on the support for rightwing populist parties in Europe. In particular, they argue that the "mobile internet in disadvantaged areas made voters more communitarian in their policy views, increasing their distrust and intolerance of strangers and enhancing nationalist tendencies" (Manacorda, Tabellini, and Tesei, 2022, p. 1).…”

“…This reasoning is based on earlier work by Tabellini (2008) about an in-group (communitarian) versus out-group (universalistic) cleavage structuring contemporary politics. Although social media can increase communitarian and universalistic views, Manacorda, Tabellini, and Tesei (2022) argue, based on other contributions, that the messages of in-group love and especially out-group hate are-given the emotional nature of the subject and the moral implications-subject to controversies that increase the views and engagements with these messages on social media platforms (see also Crockett, 2017;Rathje, Van Bavel, and Van Der Linden, 2021). Contributions concerned with the sharing of antiimmigration out-group messages have also shown that the provision of rationales for out-group hate increases the likelihood of sharing antimigrant messages on social media (Bursztyn, I. K. Haaland, et al, 2020) or for justifying joining an anti-immigrant organization (Bursztyn, Egorov, et al, 2022).…”

The Behavioral, Economic, and Political Impact of the Internet and Social Media: Empirical Challenges and Approaches

“…Expanding upon the initial work on 2G by Manacorda and Tesei (2020), Manacorda et al (2023) explored the political implications of the diffusion of 3G networks. The authors compiled data on the distribution of party votes from 2007 to 2017 across 82,094 municipalities and matched this information with proprietary data on the availability of 3G signal throughout twenty European countries.…”

Media and Social Capital

“…To borrow from the distinction drawn by Putnam (2000), it could have a positive effect on "bonding" social capital, but hinder the "bridging" variety. The implications of these dynamics could be far-reaching: such forms of in-group tribalism (amplified by social media) could lead to voters turning away from universalist values in favor of a more communitarian ideology, and to an associated increase in support for parties that advocate radical positions of in-group protection and exclusion of other groups (Manacorda et al, 2021), as well as to growing distrust between members of different parties (Iyengar et al, 2019). 30 In sum, there is substantial evidence that networks formed by media consumption tend to display homophily, given consumer preferences for pro-attitudinal content -and particularly so for social media, both due to choice in forming online communities, and to algorithmic amplification.…”