… What kinds of effects does the media’s reporting of political polarization have on Americans? Are we in a self-reinforcing cycle, in which news coverage emphasizing polarization itself has a polarizing effect?
Thanks to the support of Time-sharing Experiments in the Social Sciences, we have conducted numerous surveys of the mass public to address these questions, discussed in this paper. We find that the media’s coverage of polarization—and the ensuing increase in perceived polarization among Americans—influences political attitudes, but in some surprising ways. Specifically, media coverage of polarization increases antipathy of the other party, even as it encourages moderation among those who were more moderate to begin with. CONT.
Matt Levendusky (Penn) & Neil Malhotra (Stanford), The Monkey Cage