New research from Michigan State University suggests that those who feel self-confident about their political abilities are more likely to discriminate against those who hold opposing political views. And those who are more skeptical of their political abilities are more likely to treat other people fairly when they disagree politically.
Tag: Polarization
On-chip Infrared Circular Polarization Detector with Ultrahigh Discrimination
Filterless light-ellipticity-sensitive optoelectronic response generally has low discrimination, thus severely hindering the development of monolithic polarization detectors.
Fake and Extremely Biased Twitter Content Decreased Between 2016-2020, But Top Influencers Were More Polarized
“One side can start the polarization and keep it going forever, but it takes two sides to stop it. That’s why it easily arises, but it’s so difficult to end,” Boleslaw Szymanski said. Szymanski is the Claire & Roland Schmitt Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and director of the Network Science and Technology Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
American University Experts Share Insights on 2nd Anniversary of January 6th Insurrection
What: As we reach the 2nd anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, American University has various scholars who are experts in extremism, far-right ideologies, white supremacy, militias and organized political violence. Below please find their insights on last year and…
Back to Antarctica with SPIDER
In the next few weeks, a team led by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will fly an instrument called SPIDER. They are looking for a pattern, or polarization, in the earliest light we can measure.
Rensselaer Researcher To Follow the Trail of Misinformation
On 9/11, lawmakers from both parties unified in their response. Just over 20 years later, Congress is distinctly partisan, clashing on everything from the January 6 insurrection to COVID to climate change. Why? Many blame widespread and widely believed misinformation and disinformation. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Boleslaw Szymanski, Claire and Roland Schmitt Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, is part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers examining the flow of (mis)information in social media.
Light Polarization Creates Art, Explains Mathematical Concepts
In the American Journal of Physics, Aaron Slepkov from Trent University explores the physics of how polarization-filtered colors emerge, how they can be controlled, and why subtle changes in viewing angle, sample orientation, and the order of layers of films between polarizers can have dramatic effects on the observed colors. The research emphasizes visual examples of concepts related to birefringence, such as addition, subtraction, and order-of-operations.
Mentioning ‘white privilege’ increases online polarization
If there’s an online discussion about race, using the term “white privilege” can create a polarized situation, say University of Michigan researchers.
In a Contentious Era, How Do Friends with Different Values Stick Together? Faculty and Student Research Sheds Light
Americans are perhaps more polarized today than at any time since the Civil War. This idea has become ingrained in contemporary American discourse, popping up with increasing frequency in media coverage, in public opinion studies, and in research about how social media and its “filter bubbles” are driving polarization.
Network scientist Boleslaw Szymanski @RPI offers key insights into polarization, disinformation, and minority power.
People tend to think of the arena of politics as being driven by human decision and emotions, and therefore unpredictable. But network scientists like Boleslaw Szymanski, a computer science professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, have found that the country’s political…
If COVID-19 can’t foster political unity, what can?
Bitter fighting continues in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, even as President-elect Joe Biden urged unity in his victory speech Saturday night. Michael Macy, professor of sociology and information science at Cornell University and director of the Social…
COVID Opens a Partisan Gap on Voting by Mail
Study by UC’s New Electorate Project documents a growing divide on preferences for absentee ballots. Before the pandemic, there wasn’t any difference in the rates at which Democratic and Republican voters actually cast their ballots by mail or in-person. That may change now.
New Algorithms Could Reduce Polarization Driven By Information Overload
As the volume of available information expands, the fraction a person is able to absorb shrinks. To break this cycle, computer scientists say we need new algorithms that prioritize a broader view over fulfilling consumer biases.
Gap between rich, poor neighborhoods growing in some cities
New research provides insight into how housing prices and neighborhood values have become polarized in some urban areas, with the rich getting richer and the poor becoming poorer.
Simulations Show Extreme Opinions Can Lead to Polarized Groups
In this week’s Chaos, researchers use a theoretical model to examine what effect extreme views have on making the entire system more polarized. The group’s network-based model extends a popular approach for studying opinion dynamics, called the Cobb model, and is based on the hypothesis that those with opinions farther from the middle of a political spectrum are also less influenced by others, a trait known to social scientists as “rigidity of the extreme.”
Fake Russian Twitter accounts politicized discourse about vaccines
Activity from phony Twitter accounts established by the Russian Internet Research Agency between 2015 and 2017 may have contributed to politicizing Americans’ position on the nature and efficacy of vaccines, a health care topic which has not historically fallen along party lines, according to new research published in the American Journal of Public Health.
UAH has significant role in LEAP, a mission selected for NASA flight review
In collaboration with Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), the Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research (CSPAR) at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has a significant role in LEAP – the LargE Area burst Polarimeter – a mission that is one of four proposals approved by NASA for further review.