Complex Thinking as a Result of Incongruent Information Exposure

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cengiz Erisen ◽  
David P. Redlawsk ◽  
Elif Erisen
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Structure ◽  
Motivated Reasoning ◽  
Political Information ◽  
Integrative Complexity ◽  
Affective Valence ◽  
Complex Thinking ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Complex Thought ◽  
Policy Statements ◽  
Incongruent Information

In this article, we explore whether incongruent information influences what people recall to mind about a presidential candidate’s policy statements. We investigate whether the volume of people’s political thoughts, their ability to produce arguments, the affective valence of these thoughts, and their integrative complexity are influenced by the congruency between new political information and prior political convictions. We conducted an experiment via MTurk manipulating the congruency of information with respect to ideology. Our results show that incongruency significantly alters how people think about politics. Incongruent information increases integrative complexity of the opposing thoughts, becomes more voluminous, and includes more rationales. Moreover, these defensive thoughts are significantly more negative and less positive about the incongruent information. Parallel to what studies on motivated reasoning demonstrated, we also find that politically knowledgeable people in particular seem to strengthen their thoughts’ cognitive structure while defending their priors against information counter to their political views. We further discuss the general effects of these results and the importance of challenges to existing beliefs in generating complex thought systems.

Hearing the Other Side? – Debiasing Political Opinions in the Case of the Scottish Independence Referendum

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Céline Colombo
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Policy Issue ◽  
Motivated Reasoning ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
The Other ◽  
Integrative Complexity ◽  
Complex Thinking ◽  
Normative Requirement ◽  
Scottish Independence ◽  
Political Opinions

This study reports the effects of two debiasing strategies on the complexity of people’s thinking on a controversial policy issue – the question of Scottish independence. I start from the well-researched assumptions of motivated reasoning theory that individuals tend to protect their beliefs, are often not willing to hear the other side and fail to integrate contrasting arguments and different perspectives in their political considerations – although considering different viewpoints is a fundamental normative requirement for democratic decision-making. Two different debiasing techniques, which are meant to counteract this tendency and to evoke more integrative and complex thinking, were tested experimentally: a cognitive and a motivational strategy. The experiment was situated in the context of the Scottish independence referendum. The expectation of accountability – having to justify one’s opinion in front of unknown others – significantly enhanced integrative complexity of thinking about the issue, while inducing subjects to consider the opposite had no significant effect. Opinion strength and political knowledge did not affect the treatment effects significantly.

scholarly journals Are Echo Chambers Based on Partisanship? Twitter and Political Polarity in Poland and Hungary

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630511983767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Matuszewski ◽  
Gabriella Szabó
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Political Information ◽  
Heterogeneous Clusters ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Computer Aided ◽  
Echo Chambers ◽  
Hungarian Case ◽  
Point Of Departure

In this study, we investigate how Twitter allows individuals in Hungary and Poland to experience different political views. To comprehend citizens’ exposure to political information, “who’s following who?” graphs of 455,912 users in Hungary (851,557 connections) and 1,803,837 users in Poland (10,124,501 connections) are examined. Our conceptual point of departure is that Twitter follower networks tell us whether individuals prefer to be members of a group that receives one-sided political messages, or whether they tend to form politically heterogeneous clusters that cut across ideological lines. Methodologically, such connections are best studied by means of computer-aided quantitative research complemented by the sociocentric approach of network analysis. Our data date from September 2018. The findings for Poland do not support the hypothesis of clusters emerging along partisan lines. Likewise, the Hungarian case reveals sharp group divisions on Twitter, the nodes however are diverse and overlapping in terms of political leaning. The data suggest that exposure and segregation in follower networks are not necessarily based on partisanship.

scholarly journals Influenced by Peers: Facebook as an Information Source for Young People

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630511771627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marton Bene
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Information Environment ◽  
Political Information ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Negative Perceptions ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
The Way

The study examines the role and impact of Facebook as a central political information source within today’s high-choice information environment among university students. It assumes that the growing role of Facebook as a political information source means the return of the two-step flow of information model: political views and experiences of the less interested majority are largely shaped by the communication of the fewer politically interested peers. Based on a survey among university students in Hungary, the study confirms that Facebook is the primary political information source for university students. The results indicate that only a politically interested minority of university students post or share political content on Facebook. However, posting is shaped by dissatisfaction with the way democracy functions, and accordingly, obtaining regular information about politics through Facebook leads to more negative perceptions about the way democracy works. Based on these findings, it may be assumed that the negative evaluation of democracy by students who are informed about politics through Facebook results from the fact that on this platform information and opinions are mostly provided by their discontented peers. An important contribution of this study is that social influences resulting from using Facebook are not investigated in themselves, but are embedded into the modern information environment where several information sources are used simultaneously.

scholarly journals Pensamiento Complejo, Bases Para Una Teoria Holistica De La Educacion Superior En El Rediseño Curricular/Complex Thinking, Bases for a Holistic Theory of Higher Education in Curricular Redesign

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Macías ◽  
G Uquillas ◽  
M Aquino ◽  
B Macias
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Holistic Education ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Philosophical Perspective ◽  
Objective Reality ◽  
Complex Thinking ◽  
Complex Thought ◽  
Holistic Theory ◽  
Theoretical Reflection

El objetivo del presente artículo, consiste en realizar una reflexión sobre la perspectiva epistemológica de la complejidad desde las perspectivas de las ciencias. En este sentido, se defiende que un enfoque holístico puede servir de ayuda activa en la enseñanza de la complejidad desde un enfoque crítico y reflexivo amparados en nuevos paradigmas. Después de la relación del pensamiento complejo y la perspectiva holística en el aprendizaje con la dimensión mente que piensa, mente que siente, y mente intuitiva en la educación, trazamos la posibilidad de configurar diseños curriculares de aprendizaje relacionalmente desde la reflexión teórica donde se destaca los nuevos contenidos y asignaturas y la teoría fundamentada en la praxis que radica, en identificar procesos sociales mediante la construcción de teoría a partir de la realidad objetiva. Terminamos formulando desde la perspectiva filosófica y desde la concepción de la realidad se desprende, metódicamente, tres tipos de formaciones profesionales integradas y simultáneas, a partir de las cuales los profesionales en formación adquieren conocimientos, valores y prácticas demostrables transversalmente, durante toda su formación. The objective of the present article consists of the analysis of the new paradigms of the holistic education and its repercussions on higher education defined by the complexity and multidisciplinary. In this sense it is argued that a holistic approach can serve as an active help in the teaching of complexity from a critical and reflexive approach supported by new paradigms. After the relation complex thought and the holistic perspective in learning with the dimension thinking mind, feeling mind and intuitive mind in education, we design the possibility of figuring out learning curricular designs rationally from the theoretical reflection where the new contents and subject matters are outstanding as well as the theory based on the praxis which leads to identify social processes through the construction of theory from objective reality. We conclude by formulating from the philosophical perspective and the reality conception methodically three types of integrated and simultaneous professional formations from which professionals in formation acquire knowledge, cross demonstrable practices and values during all their formation. Palabras claves: Pensamiento complejo, educación holística, cerebro triuno afecto, rediseño curricular. Keywords: Complex thought, holistic education, triune brain, curricular redesign.

A Partisan Schema for Political Information Processing

1986 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 505-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milton Lodge ◽  
Ruth Hamill
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Experimental Study ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Political Information ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Policy Statements ◽  
Interest And Knowledge ◽  
Better Than

Based on their interest in politics and knowledge of political leaders, individuals are classified into three levels of partisan sophistication: (1) those scoring high in interest and knowledge (partisan schematics), (2) a middle group, and (3) those scoring low (partisan aschematics). In this experimental study, and consistent with findings from cognitive and social psychology, partisan schematics prove better able than partisan aschematics to classify campaign statements as either Republican or Democratic and to recall the policy stands taken by a fictitious congressman. Aschematics, at the other extreme, perform at no better than chance levels in either the recognition or recall of the congressman's policy statements. There are, however, liabilities to sophistication as well: Schematics demonstrate a “consistency bias” in recalling significantly more policy statements that are consistent with the congressman's party identification than are inconsistent with it. This “restructuring” of memory is especially pronounced among sophisticates, and reflects a serious bias in the processing of political information.

scholarly journals ECOLOGIZING KNOWLEDGE, REVERBERING FOR TEACHING BEING-DOING IN (POST)PANDEMIC TIMES

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-328
Author(s):  
Márcia Boell ◽  
Arlene Aparecida de Arruda ◽  
Lucila Guedes de Oliveira ◽  
Eliana Maria do Sacramento Soares
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Male Teachers ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Technology Learning ◽  
Complex Thinking ◽  
Word Cloud ◽  
Complex Thought ◽  
Education Network

We present results of a study about the challenges of teaching practice in the context of the pandemic that we lived in 2020. We take complex thinking as the guiding thread to ecologize knowledge and establish relationships and reflections with the voices of female and male teachers in the basic education network that worked with this scenario. In this context, ecologize has the meaning of knowing oneself and the other, based on conceptual pluralities and valuing life. The methodological path was inspired in Bernard Charlot's methodological instrument (2009) for the generation and understanding of the voices of female and male teachers who lived the investigated daily life. The aforementioned instrument, called “balances of knowledge”, allowed the analysis of the data generated, which is represented in a picture, a word cloud where the meanings of being and teaching in the path of the year of the pandemic lived are, the main voices being expressed: ecologize, emergency, digital technology, learning, feelings, meaningful, innovation, learning, fabrics, possibilities and transformation. The interconnections between these voices and the theoretical concepts outlined in the study reverberate movements towards the knowledge of the self, giving meaning, with activation of complex thought networks, that the image of the figures that we present may signal new ways to face the challenges of the situations experienced.

scholarly journals Creating the image of political communicators with the use of social media and computer technology

1970 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Jankiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Computer Technology ◽  
Electronic Devices ◽  
Computer Software ◽  
Political Information ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Internet And Social Media

Nowadays, computer technology and social media can be used in certain ways to create positive or negative images of political communicators. More and more people receive political communication with the use of electronic devices via the Internet and social media. The ways in which one can create and transmit images of political communicators have evolved. Companies use new methods of gaining and delivering political information to receivers. At present, information technology is sometimes used not only to send political information but also to manipulate the receivers and change their political views in the fight for support and to win elections. Electronic devices, the Internet and social media, can be used to gain support or to defame political opponents. This paper has been written to bring closer how social media participation, computer technology and software can be utilized to obtain information which then, neatly tailored, can serve as a tool to manipulate political views of addressees of political communication. This article presents the procedure of obtaining, processing and applying information in creating images of politicians by private companies. It also analyzes people’s awareness of ways in which social media communication can be used in creation of political image. Hence, a survey has been conducted to research the participation of university students in social media and their awareness of how the data obtained from them can be used in for political reasons. The paper also explains how incorporating and combining social media platforms, psychology, algorithms, the Internet and cutting edge computer software opened new ways to impact political views with political communication.

scholarly journals Identity-motivated elaboration : the role of partisan social identities and elaboration in political persuasion and learning

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Fred J. Jennnings
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Motivated Reasoning ◽  
Political Information ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Persuasion

Persuasive political messages play a central role in the attitude formation process. The unification of the social identity theory, the theory of motivated reasoning, and the elaboration likelihood model better explains the way individuals learn from and are persuaded by messages in the evolving political media landscape. Partisanship is a social identity that biases the processing of new political information. The current dissertation employs an experimental design (with replication) to test the process of identity-motivated elaboration and structural equation modeling to test hypothesized relationships. The results reveal that the insertion of partisan cues to a political message, indicating partisan social group norms, conditions persuasion by partisan social identity, limits learning, and valences elaboration. Citizens engage in partisan motivated reasoning, not just to defend prior beliefs, but to defend their partisan social identity. Identifying with the Democratic or Republican Party creates a partisan lens through which all new political information is processed. The integration of the three psychological theories avails a new perspective on the political persuasion process, one that is more nuanced and extensive than that provided by any isolated theoretical perspective. The current study extends our understanding of this complex political communicative process by synthesizing the social identity approach, partisan motivated reasoning, and valenced cognitive elaboration into a unified theory of political persuasion.

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