polarization Flashcards
self concept complexity
a person’s perceived knowledge of themselves, based upon the number of distinct cognitive structures, or self-aspects, they believe to possess
buffering hypothesis
a phenomenon where social connections can alleviate negative consequences of stressful events
social identity complexity
subjective representation of multiple identities that do not perfectly overlap
structure of society
actual overlap/similarity in between groups, distinctiveness of ingroup identities and relative status of ingroups
ingroup threat
raises salience of threatened ingroup, depletes cognitive resources needed for complexity
tolerance of outgroup members
reduces magnitude of perceived ingroup-outgroup differences, partial overlap of group membership -> less motivated to use group for intergroup comparisons
contact hypothesis
belief that prejudice is the result of ignorance/lack of contact between groups
optimal conditions for contact to reduce prejudice
-common goal / mutual interdependence
-must be equal status contact
-informal, friendly setting
-interaction with multiple members
-social norms of equality present / institutional approval
group polarization
the tendency for groups to make more extreme decisions than individuals
how does social sorting relate to social identity complexity?
people tend to associate with those who share similar beliefs or adopt similar beliefs of people they associate with; people are more likely to agree with the majority
how does social sorting relate to partisan prejudice, intergroup emotions (anger & enthusiasm), and activism (mason, 2018)?
-people are more likely to go out and campaign for something they have intense feelings for, and those intense feelings tend to grow from associating with other ingroup members
how might social sorting help explain/contribute to political polarization?
-political polarization: the extent to which opinion on an issue are opposed; increase in political opposition over time
-people tend to share partisanship views with those in the same party, and could therefore also begin to share their negative feelings towards the outgroup
issue polarization
polarization pertaining to policy issues
affective polarization
polarization pertaining to partisan identity and emotions towards political ingroups and outgroups
in what ways are americans affectively polarized?
-implicit attitude: at the unconscious level, and involuntarily formed, and are typically unknown to us
-explicit attitude: at the conscious level, are deliberately formed, and are easy to self report
-social distance measures: a measure of social separation between groups caused by perceived or real differences between groups of people as defined by well-known social categories
political homophily
the preference of people to worm social ties on the basis of shared political beliefs/partisanship
what are alternative explanations for political homophily besides choice homophily?
-identity homophily
-issue homophily
-engagement homophily
how might political homophily make affective polarization worse and/or more difficult to fix?
people will only want to associate with those who share their same beliefs, won’t want to challenge their beliefs, or listen to the opposing side
