How Self-Sentiments and Personal Networks Impact Political Polarization

This project investigates how identities, self-sentiments, and personal network composition impact political polarization. I apply the framework of Affect Control Theory to capture how Democrats and Republicans feel about their political ingroup and outgroups (through evaluation, potency and activity ratings) and evaluate the likelihood of events involving these groups. In my first experiment, I study if self-uncertainty and self-affirmation primes impact political bias. I also apply Affect Control Theory-Self to measure self-sentiment change (self-evaluation, self-potency, and self-activity) from these primes as well. I predict that priming self-uncertainty should increase political bias (due to inflated self-sentiments) and that priming self-affirmation should decrease political bias (due to inflating self-sentiments). My results show that there is strong political bias in both Democrats and Republicans with each group rating their outgroup lower on EPA. When analyzing if psychological primes could influence this baseline bias, I find that self-uncertainty increased negative evaluations towards one’s political outgroup. Finally, I found that I could detect self-sentiment change on the self-evaluation dimension from these psychological primes. Thus, Affect Control Theory could capture political polarization, self-sentiment change from psychological primes, and these primes did have an impact on political bias. My second study analyzed how personal network composition influenced political bias. I predicted that increased political homogeneity in one’s personal network would be associated with greater political bias (measured through feelings towards one’s outgroup, subjective likelihood of events involving political groups, and strength of political ideology). Increased homogeneity was associated with decreased evaluation and potency of the outgroup as well as biased information processing for evaluating the likelihood of events involving the political groups. Additionally, greater homogeneity was associated with increased strength in political ideology, but only in Republicans. Finally, I found that evaluating one’s outgroup less negatively was associated with higher agreement with political beliefs associated with one’s outgroup. The results of this project demonstrate that self-sentiments and personal networks can influence political bias

The Effects of Power on the Processing of Identity Threat

Identity theory provides a useful foundation for understanding how social factors influence the acceptance of evidence. This is because identity theory provides a framework of how we process information from other people depending on what social positions we occupy. The current study explored how the perception of power impacts the processing of an identity threat with college student participants (N=217). High power was predicted to decrease acceptance of identity-threatening information, and low power was predicted to increase acceptance of identity-threatening information. However, the study yielded non-significant effects of power on the acceptance of identity-threatening information. Results did show that individuals were more likely to accept identity-threatening information when they felt secure about their career prospects within their chosen major. Future research may be able parse out how exogenous social variables impact the processing of identity threats

Online media literacy intervention in Indonesia reduces misinformation sharing intention

Media literacy is widely viewed as an important tool in the fight against the spread of misinformation online. However, efforts to boost media literacy have primarily focused on Western-media and Western-oriented social media platforms, which are substantively different from the media and platforms used widely in the Global South. In the present work, we focus on the media ecosystem of Indonesia and report the results of an online media literacy intervention consisting of short-videos that were targeted specifically to social media users in Indonesia (N= 656). We found that participants in our media literacy intervention were 64% more likely to reduce their sharing intentions of false headlines than our control group (p \u3c 0.001). Our novel media literacy intervention shows promise as a useful tool to reduce misinformation in Southeast Asia

Developing Affective Mental Imagery Stimuli with Multidimensional Scaling

The goal of this paper is to provide an example of how multidimensional scaling (MDS) can be used for stimuli development. The study described in this paper illustrates this process by developing affective mental imagery stimuli using the circumplex model of affect as a guide. The circumplex model of affect argues that all emotions can be described in terms of two underlying primary dimensions: valence and arousal (Russel, 1980). We used MDS to determine if affective mental imagery stimuli obtained from verbal prompts could be separated by arousal and valence to create four distinct categories (high –positive, low-positive, high-negative, and low-negative) as seen in other stimuli. 60 students from the University of South Carolina participated in the first experiment to evaluate three sets of stimuli. After being analyzed using MDS, selected stimuli were then assessed again in a second experiment to validate their robust valence and arousal distinctions. The second experiment was conducted with 34 subjects to validate 40 of the best stimuli from experiment 1. It was found that mental imagery stimuli can produce a reliable affective response for the dimensions of valence and arousal and that MDS can be an effective tool for stimuli development

Supplemental Material to: Political Network Composition Predicts Vaccination Attitudes

Supplemental material for the article "Political Network Composition Predicts Vaccination Attitudes" published in Social Science & Medicine

Tackling Misinformation in Indonesia: Assessing Fact-Checking and Media Literacy

Online misinformation presents a global challenge necessitating targeted interventions. Fact-checking, a widely utilized strategy, involves investigating claims to verify or debunk them. Although studies indicate that exposure to fact-checks can reduce belief in misinformation, limitations arise, including reduced effectiveness with politically polarized content and varying trust perceptions of fact-checking sources. Media literacy interventions also hold promise in mitigating misinformation by bolstering critical thinking skills. Despite their potential, both fact-checking and media literacy efforts have predominantly focused on English-speaking and Western audiences, leaving gaps in understanding their effectiveness elsewhere. This study focuses on Indonesia, characterized by a distinct media landscape and a growing Internet user base. Findings reveal that higher media literacy predicts positive attitudes towards fact-checking. However, exposure to fact-checks from various sources did not significantly enhance discernment or sharing behavior as anticipated. Moreover, fact-checks from political ingroups exhibited limited impact. Conversely, media literacy significantly predicted improved discernment and restraint in sharing false headlines. These results challenge the presumed efficacy of fact-checking in Indonesia and underscore the importance of media literacy initiatives

Political network composition predicts vaccination attitudes

Political polarization is growing rapidly in the United States and has been linked to politicized public health issues including vaccination. Political homogeneity among one's interpersonal relationships may predict polarization levels and partisan bias. In this study, we analyzed if political network structure predicted partisan beliefs about the COVID-19 vaccine, beliefs about vaccines in general, and COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Personal networks were measured by whom the respondent discussed “important matters” with to obtain a list of individuals who are close to the respondent. The number of associates listed who share the political identity or vaccine status with the respondent was calculated as a measure of homogeneity. We find that having more Republicans and unvaccinated individuals in one's network predicted lower vaccine confidence whereas having more Democrats and vaccinated individuals in one's network predicted higher vaccine confidence. Exploratory network analyses revealed that non-kin others are especially impactful on vaccine attitudes when those network connections are also Republican and unvaccinated.This is the accepted, peer-reviewed version of the article: Facciani, M., Lazić, A., Viggiano, G., & McKay, T. (2023). Political network composition predicts vaccination attitudes. Social Science & Medicine, 328, 116004. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.11600

Alluring or Alarming? The Polarizing Effect of Forbidden Knowledge in Political Discourse

“Forbidden knowledge” claims are central to conspiracy theories, yet have received little systematic study. Forbidden knowledge claims imply that information is censored or suppressed. Theoretically, forbidden knowledge could be alluring or alarming, depending on alignment with recipients’ political worldview. In three studies (N = 2363, two preregistered), we examined censorship claims about (conservative-aligned) controversial COVID-19 topics. In Studies 1a and 2 participants read COVID-19 claims framed as censored or not. Conservatives reported more attraction to and belief in the claims, regardless of censorship condition, while liberals showed decreased interest and belief when information was presented as censored. Study 1b revealed divergent interpretations of suppression motives: liberals assumed censored information was harmful or false, whereas conservatives deemed it valuable and true. In Study 2, conservatives made more critical thinking errors in a vaccine risk reasoning task when information was framed as censored. Findings reveal the polarizing effects of forbidden knowledge frames