… The remedy for easing … polarization, here and abroad, may seem straightforward: provide balanced information to people of all sides. …
You might expect that people’s views would soften and that divisions between groups would get smaller. That is not what usually happens. On the contrary, people’s original beliefs tend to harden and the original divisions typically get bigger. Balanced presentations can fuel unbalanced views.
What explains this? The answer is called “biased assimilation,” which means that people assimilate new information in a selective fashion. …
Can anything be done? There is no simple term for the answer, so let’s make one up: surprising validators. [cont.]
Cass Sunstein, Harvard (NYT)