Understanding Polarization: Meanings, Measures, and Model Evaluation

Polarization is a topic of intense interest among social scientists, but there is significant disagreement regarding the character of the phenomenon and little understanding of underlying mechanics. A first problem, we argue, is that polarization appears in the literature as not one concept but many. In the first part of the article, we distinguish nine phenomena that may be considered polarization, with suggestions of appropriate measures for each. In the second part of the article, we apply this analysis to evaluate the types of polarization generated by the three major families of computational models proposing specific mechanisms of opinion polarization.

[1]  Patrick Grim,et al.  Disambiguation of social polarization concepts and measures , 2016 .

[2]  Lilliana Mason,et al.  “I Disrespectfully Agree”: The Differential Effects of Partisan Sorting on Social and Issue Polarization , 2015 .

[3]  Danielle M. Thomsen.  Ideological Moderates Won’t Run: How Party Fit Matters for Partisan Polarization in Congress , 2014, The Journal of Politics.

[4]  Thomas J. Leeper.  The Informational Basis for Mass Polarization , 2014 .

[5]  Jérôme Kunegis,et al.  Applications of Structural Balance in Signed Social Networks , 2014, ArXiv.

[6]  Aaron C. Weinschenk.  Polarization, Ideology, and Vote Choice in U.S. Congressional Elections , 2014 .

[7]  T. Palfrey,et al.  Candidate Entry and Political Polarization: An Antimedian Voter Theorem , 2014 .

[8]  Matthew Levendusky.  Why Do Partisan Media Polarize Viewers , 2013 .

[9]  M. Prior,et al.  Media and Political Polarization , 2013 .

[10]  James N. Druckman,et al.  How Elite Partisan Polarization Affects Public Opinion Formation , 2013, American Political Science Review.

[11]  B. Lauderdale.  Does Inattention to Political Debate Explain the Polarization Gap between the U.S. Congress and Public , 2013 .

[12]  Dave Cliff,et al.  Reexamining the Relative Agreement Model of Opinion Dynamics , 2012, J. Artif. Soc. Soc. Simul..

[13]  S. Iyengar,et al.  Affect, Not Ideology A Social Identity Perspective on Polarization , 2012 .

[14]  J. Ura,et al.  Partisan Moods: Polarization and the Dynamics of Mass Party Preferences , 2012, The Journal of Politics.

[15]  Brian Anderson,et al.  How simulations fail , 2011, Synthese.

[16]  C. Altafini,et al.  Computing global structural balance in large-scale signed social networks , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[17]  Shaul Shalvi,et al.  Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[18]  Shaul Shalvi,et al.  References and Notes Supporting Online Material Materials and Methods Som Text Figs. S1 to S16 References the Neuropeptide Oxytocin Regulates Parochial Altruism in Intergroup Conflict among Humans , 2022 .

[19]  Marc J. Hetherington,et al.  Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics , 2009 .

[20]  M. Batty.  Generative social science: Studies in agent-based computational modeling , 2008 .

[21]  M. Fiorina,et al.  Political Polarization in the American Public , 2008 .

[22]  Joel Cooper,et al.  Attitudes, Norms, and Social Groups , 2008 .

[23]  John H. Miller,et al.  Complex adaptive systems - an introduction to computational models of social life , 2009, Princeton studies in complexity.

[24]  R. Brownstein.  The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America , 2007 .

[25]  S. Forman.  The Life and Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Including All of His Important Utterances on Public Questions, Compiled from State Papers and from His Private Correspondence , 2007 .

[26]  Nora Jacobson.  Social Epistemology , 2007 .

[27]  F. Harary.  On the measurement of structural balance , 2007 .

[28]  V. Eguíluz,et al.  Homophily, Cultural Drift, and the Co-Evolution of Cultural Groups , 2006, physics/0609213.

[29]  Guillaume Deffuant,et al.  Comparing Extremism Propagation Patterns in Continuous Opinion Models , 2006, J. Artif. Soc. Soc. Simul..

[30]  Rainer Hegselmann,et al.  Truth and Cognitive Division of Labour: First Steps Towards a Computer Aided Social Epistemology , 2006, J. Artif. Soc. Soc. Simul..

[31]  K. T. Poole,et al.  Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches , 2006 .

[32]  James A. Kitts,et al.  Social influence and the emergence of norms amid ties of amity and enmity , 2006, Simul. Model. Pract. Theory.

[33]  Michael W. Macy Department of Sociology,et al.  What sustains cultural diversity and what undermines it? Axelrod and beyond , 2006, physics/0604201.

[34]  Michael W. Macy Department of Sociology,et al.  Why more contact may increase cultural polarization , 2006, physics/0604196.

[35]  K. Kułakowski,et al.  The Heider balance - a continuous approach , 2005, physics/0501073.

[36]  V. Eguíluz,et al.  Globalization, polarization and cultural drift , 2005 .

[37]  M. Fiorina,et al.  Culture War?: The Myth of a Polarized America , 2004 .

[38]  Raúl Toral,et al.  Role of dimensionality in Axelrod's model for the dissemination of culture , 2003 .

[39]  Zhigang Wang,et al.  Sentiment and social mitosis: Implications of Heider's Balance Theory , 2003, J. Artif. Soc. Soc. Simul..

[40]  V. Eguíluz,et al.  Nonequilibrium transitions in complex networks: a model of social interaction. , 2002, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[41]  M. Macy.  Polarization in Dynamic Networks : A Hopfield Model of Emergent Structure , 2003 .

[42]  Patrick Doreian,et al.  Some dynamics of social balance processes: bringing Heider back into balance theory , 2003, Soc. Networks.

[43]  Guillaume Deffuant,et al.  How can extremism prevail? A study based on the relative agreement interaction model , 2002, J. Artif. Soc. Soc. Simul..

[44]  Rainer Hegselmann,et al.  Opinion dynamics and bounded confidence: models, analysis and simulation , 2002, J. Artif. Soc. Soc. Simul..

[45]  Matt L. Huffman,et al.  Attitudinal Polarization and Trimodal Distributions: Measurement Problems and Theoretical Implications , 2001 .

[46]  I. Hacking.  The Social Construction of What , 2000 .

[47]  John H. Evans,et al.  Have American's Social Attitudes Become More Polarized? , 1996, American Journal of Sociology.

[48]  Joshua M. Epstein,et al.  Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up , 1996 .

[49]  Deanna Kuhn,et al.  Effects of Evidence on Attitudes: Is Polarization the Norm? , 1996 .

[50]  R. Joynt.  Microbial threats. , 1996, Archives of neurology.

[51]  A. Miller,et al.  The attitude polarization phenomenon : role of response measure, attitude extremity, and behavioral consequences of reported attitude change , 1993 .

[52]  John C. Turner,et al.  Polarized Norms and Social Frames of Reference: A Test of the Self-Categorization Theory of Group Polarization , 1990 .

[53]  J J Hopfield,et al.  Neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities. , 1982, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[54]  L. Ross,et al.  Biased Assimilation and Attitude Polarization: The Effects of Prior Theories on Subsequently Considered Evidence , 1979 .

[55]  Jeffrey A. Hart,et al.  Symmetry and Polarization in the European International System, 1870 - 1879 , 1974 .

[56]  M. Degroot.  Reaching a Consensus , 1974 .

[57]  Peter Abell,et al.  Structural Balance in Dynamic Structures , 1968 .

[58]  Torsten Husén,et al.  A methodological study , 1959 .

[59]  F. Harary,et al.  STRUCTURAL BALANCE: A GENERALIZATION OF HEIDER'S THEORY1 , 1977 .

[60]  J. French,et al.  A formal theory of social power. , 1956, Psychological review.

[61]  F. Heider.  Attitudes and cognitive organization. , 1946, The Journal of psychology.