Political sectarianism in America

Abstract

A poisonous cocktail of othering, aversion, and moralization poses a threat to democracy

Political Psychology in the Digital (mis)Information age: A Model of News Belief and Sharing

“…Another risk factor that both impacts and is impacted by misinformation is political polarization. Political polarization refers to the divergence of political attitudes and beliefs toward ideological extremes, although a more pernicious form of polarization focuses less on the triumphs of ingroup party members than on dominating opposing party members (Finkel et al., 2020). Over the past few decades, political polarization has become more extreme in many countries (Kevins & Soroka, 2018; Pew Research Center, 2014; Zimerman & Pinheiro, 2020).…”

“…Another negative consequence of the “us versus them” mentality is affective polarization. Negative feelings toward the out‐group are heightened by polarization, and this acts to increase the divide between parties (Abramowitz & Webster, 2018; Banda & Cluverius, 2018; Finkel et al., 2020). Partisans, especially extreme partisans, may be motivated to spread fake news to bolster the in‐group or foster negative feelings toward the opposition—even if they do not believe the information (Path C).…”

Shared partisanship dramatically increases social tie formation in a Twitter field experiment

“…Instead, partisans are much more likely to connect to complete strangers simply because they share the same political views. This suggests that if one seeks to reduce partisan assortment on social media networks it may be necessary for algorithms to actively counteract preexisting psychological biases-biases that are part of the political sectarianism in which America is currently embroiled (14).…”

Undergraduate behavioral biologists keep science careers in focus through pandemic challenges—but need support

“…Although behavior during the pandemic is often explained in terms of proximate causation, we find that the actions we observe cannot mainly be attributed to age-associated deficits in brain development (Berns et al 2009;Romer et al 2017) or mitigation fatigue (Harvey 2020). Rather, with the calibration of behavioral evolution, we recognize how forces of human prosociality may depreciate rational judgement, influence risk tolerance, affect the impulse to congregate with kin and friends, form political identity, and act aggressively toward out-groups (Choi and Bowles 2007;Bacon and Corr 2020;Eaton and Kalichman 2020;Finkel et al 2020;Rosenbaum 2020;Van Bayel et al 2020). The doubling down on misinformation represents willingness to conform-a secular ritual demonstrating commitment-that solidifies group identity.…”