Reducing political polarization in the United States with a mobile chat platform

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Standard

Reducing political polarization in the United States with a mobile chat platform. / Combs, Aidan; Tierney, Graham; Guay, Brian; Merhout, Friedolin; Bail, Christopher A.; Hillygus, D. Sunshine; Volfovsky, Alexander.

In: Nature Human Behaviour, Vol. 7, No. 9, 2023, p. 1454-1461.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Harvard

Combs, A, Tierney, G, Guay, B, Merhout, F, Bail, CA, Hillygus, DS & Volfovsky, A 2023, 'Reducing political polarization in the United States with a mobile chat platform', Nature Human Behaviour, vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 1454-1461. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01655-0

APA

Combs, A., Tierney, G., Guay, B., Merhout, F., Bail, C. A., Hillygus, D. S., & Volfovsky, A. (2023). Reducing political polarization in the United States with a mobile chat platform. Nature Human Behaviour, 7(9), 1454-1461. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01655-0

Vancouver

Combs A, Tierney G, Guay B, Merhout F, Bail CA, Hillygus DS et al. Reducing political polarization in the United States with a mobile chat platform. Nature Human Behaviour. 2023;7(9):1454-1461. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01655-0

Author

Combs, Aidan ; Tierney, Graham ; Guay, Brian ; Merhout, Friedolin ; Bail, Christopher A. ; Hillygus, D. Sunshine ; Volfovsky, Alexander. / Reducing political polarization in the United States with a mobile chat platform. In: Nature Human Behaviour. 2023 ; Vol. 7, No. 9. pp. 1454-1461.

Bibtex

@article{8e807919ba0e49df932308c4ce177348,

title = "Reducing political polarization in the United States with a mobile chat platform",

abstract = "Do anonymous online conversations between people with different political views exacerbate or mitigate partisan polarization? We created a mobile chat platform to study the impact of such discussions. Our study recruited Republicans and Democrats in the United States to complete a survey about their political views. We later randomized them into treatment conditions where they were offered financial incentives to use our platform to discuss a contentious policy issue with an opposing partisan. We found that people who engage in anonymous cross-party conversations about political topics exhibit substantial decreases in polarization compared with a placebo group that wrote an essay using the same conversation prompts. Moreover, these depolarizing effects were correlated with the civility of dialogue between study participants. Our findings demonstrate the potential for well-designed social media platforms to mitigate political polarization and underscore the need for a flexible platform for scientific research on social media.",

author = "Aidan Combs and Graham Tierney and Brian Guay and Friedolin Merhout and Bail, {Christopher A.} and Hillygus, {D. Sunshine} and Alexander Volfovsky",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.",

year = "2023",

doi = "10.1038/s41562-023-01655-0",

language = "English",

volume = "7",

pages = "1454--1461",

journal = "Nature Human Behaviour",

issn = "2397-3374",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

number = "9",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Reducing political polarization in the United States with a mobile chat platform

AU - Combs, Aidan

AU - Tierney, Graham

AU - Guay, Brian

AU - Merhout, Friedolin

AU - Bail, Christopher A.

AU - Hillygus, D. Sunshine

AU - Volfovsky, Alexander

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Do anonymous online conversations between people with different political views exacerbate or mitigate partisan polarization? We created a mobile chat platform to study the impact of such discussions. Our study recruited Republicans and Democrats in the United States to complete a survey about their political views. We later randomized them into treatment conditions where they were offered financial incentives to use our platform to discuss a contentious policy issue with an opposing partisan. We found that people who engage in anonymous cross-party conversations about political topics exhibit substantial decreases in polarization compared with a placebo group that wrote an essay using the same conversation prompts. Moreover, these depolarizing effects were correlated with the civility of dialogue between study participants. Our findings demonstrate the potential for well-designed social media platforms to mitigate political polarization and underscore the need for a flexible platform for scientific research on social media.

AB - Do anonymous online conversations between people with different political views exacerbate or mitigate partisan polarization? We created a mobile chat platform to study the impact of such discussions. Our study recruited Republicans and Democrats in the United States to complete a survey about their political views. We later randomized them into treatment conditions where they were offered financial incentives to use our platform to discuss a contentious policy issue with an opposing partisan. We found that people who engage in anonymous cross-party conversations about political topics exhibit substantial decreases in polarization compared with a placebo group that wrote an essay using the same conversation prompts. Moreover, these depolarizing effects were correlated with the civility of dialogue between study participants. Our findings demonstrate the potential for well-designed social media platforms to mitigate political polarization and underscore the need for a flexible platform for scientific research on social media.

U2 - 10.1038/s41562-023-01655-0

DO - 10.1038/s41562-023-01655-0

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 37604989

AN - SCOPUS:85168494736

VL - 7

SP - 1454

EP - 1461

JO - Nature Human Behaviour

JF - Nature Human Behaviour

SN - 2397-3374

IS - 9

ER -

ID: 369981198