Invisible Audience and Echo Chamber Effects

Developing a theory for the remote audiences of digital networks, we dialogue with social psychology and social theory to describe a novel form of communication that is delivered to everyone and no one at the same time. This is the invisible audience. At the same time as people express themselves to a generalized, invisible audience over social media, the ‘everyone’ of this invisible audience is often narrowed in a very specific way: echo chamber effects. The invisible audience and echo chamber effects both reinforce a solipsistic horizon for every person, and these individual horizons come partially together under echo chamber effects, constituting a multiplicity of separate ‘homophilic assemblages’ characterized by normative and political alignment, one-dimensional communication, and black-and-white thinking. We call this a ‘splitting public sphere’. On the whole, rational debate is curtailed, under the reign of soundbites, memes, and angry venting. The lack of exposure to reasoned disagreement makes people more susceptible to authoritarian rhetoric and propaganda.

Cobertura de diarios en Twitter de las elecciones autonómicas de Madrid 2021. Procesamiento de lenguaje natural y algoritmos de aprendizaje automático

The aim of this work is to study the news coverage by the main Spanish generalist newspapers on Twitter during the campaign for the Community of Madrid elections in 2021 (n = 2,709). Natural language processing techniques and machine learning algorithms are applied to identify the predominant topic related to the elections and the mentions of candidates and political parties by each media, and to calibrate the emotional value of the messages published by El país, El mundo, Eldiario.es, and El confidencial. Among other findings, the results reveal how the media coverage focused mainly on campaign events and electoral debates. Despite the detection of minor differences between the newspapers, a general pattern emerges through this content, with a notable dominance of Isabel Díaz Ayuso but little influence of Rocío Monasterio as the lead candidates for their party. The sentiment analysis reveals the political alignment of each newspaper, using mainly negative messages with the aim of reducing the importance of a candidate or political party. While El país and Eldiario.es focused their criticism on Vox and the Partido Popular, El mundo and El confidencial criticized the actions of the national government, the PSOE’s proposal to join forces with Unidas Podemos, and Vox’s position, as well as emphasizing the disaster faced by Ciudadanos. It can be deduced that the media contributed to Ayuso’s success and to the consolidation of her image as an individual distinct from her own party. Resumen Se examina la cobertura informativa en las principales cabeceras generalistas españolas en Twitter durante la campaña de las elecciones a la Comunidad de Madrid en 2021 (n=2.709). Mediante técnicas de procesamiento de lenguaje natural y algoritmos de aprendizaje automático se identifica el tema preponderante vinculado a los comicios, se señala la incidencia de los candidatos y los partidos en cada medio y se calibra el valor emocional de los mensajes publicados por El país, El mundo, Eldiario.es y El confidencial. Entre otras pesquisas, los resultados evidencian cómo la cobertura mediática se centra, principalmente, en los actos de campaña y en los debates electorales. Pese a detectar pequeñas disimilitudes entre los diarios, se intuye un patrón generalizado: la notable incidencia de Isabel Díaz Ayuso y la escasa influencia de Rocío Monasterio como cabeza de lista en el contenido. A partir del análisis de sentimientos se constata la alineación partidista de las cabeceras, exponiendo, sobre todo, mensajes en tono negativo con la intención de mermar la relevancia de algún candidato o formación política. Mientras El país y Eldiario.es situaron en el centro de sus críticas a Vox y al Partido Popular, El mundo y El confidencial recriminaron la actuación del gobierno central, menospreciaron la proposición del PSOE a Unidas Podemos en aras de aunar votos, censuraron la postura de Vox e, incluso, insistieron en la debacle de Ciudadanos. Se deduce que los propios medios han contribuido al modelo de éxito de Ayuso y a la consolidación de su figura, propiciando ese individualismo y el distanciamiento de las siglas de su propio partido.

Who is it okay to punch?

A popular contemporary meme involves the social acceptability of “punching Nazis.” This phenomenon raises the question: what characteristics make a group or member of a group more or less “punch-able”? More broadly, what group attributes yield support for physical violence against them? In this study, we build on the extant psychology literature on intergroup processes to look at what leads individuals to find physical violence against a group acceptable, and if the factors that lead to such acceptance differ from those that lead to sheer affective intolerance. We use two experimental tasks to test expectations built on prominent theories. In a “real-world rating task,” participants evaluated a series of real-world groups and individuals with varying characteristics such as race, ideology, intelligence, warmth, and tendency toward violence. Also, in a conjoint experiment, participants chose between two groups in terms of which they would support being punched, as various attributes were manipulated such as race, expressed ideological values, partisanship, income, tendency toward violence, and being described as disgusting or threatening. We find consistent support for effects of political alignment (particularly, expressed ideological values related to dominance) and perceived tendency toward violence, as well as mixed findings for race and several other factors. These findings synthesize theories on intergroup conflict with contemporary findings on affective polarization.

Embodied Philology

A collaboration between actors and musicians of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Almaty, Kazakhstan, and local electronic musician and community activist Brother El of Chicago highlights the difficulties of translating embodied performances of race and ethnicity in a transnational post–Cold War context. In a comparative reading taking up a play by the Ilkhom Theatre of Tashkent alongside its citation in the Chicago collaboration, the framework of “embodied philology” exposes the limits of post–Cold War international political alignment.

Exposure to continuous or fluid theories of sexual orientation leads some heterosexuals to embrace less-exclusive heterosexual orientations

We examined whether heterosexual individuals’ self-reported sexual orientation could be influenced experimentally by manipulating their knowledge of the nature of sexual orientation. In Study 1 (180 university students, 66% female) participants read summaries describing evidence for sexual orientation existing on a continuum versus discrete categories or a control manipulation, and in Study 2 (460 participants in a nationally representative Qualtrics panel, 50% female) additionally read summaries describing sexual orientation as fluid versus stable across the life-course. After reading summaries, participants answered various questions about their sexual orientation. In Study 1, political moderates and progressives (but not conservatives) who read the continuous manipulation subsequently reported being less exclusively heterosexual, and regardless of political alignment, participants reported less certainty about their sexual orientation, relative to controls. In Study 2, after exposure to fluid or continuous manipulations heterosexual participants were up to five times more likely than controls to rate themselves as non-exclusively heterosexual. Additionally, those in the continuous condition reported less certainty about their sexual orientation and were more willing to engage in future same-sex sexual experiences, than those in the control condition. These results suggest that non-traditional theories of sexual orientation can lead heterosexuals to embrace less exclusive heterosexual orientations.

Exposure to continuous or fluid theories of sexual orientation leads some heterosexuals to embrace less-exclusive heterosexual orientations

We examined whether heterosexual individuals’ self-reported sexual orientation could be influenced experimentally by manipulating their knowledge of the nature of sexual orientation. In Study 1 (180 university students, 66% female) participants read summaries describing evidence for sexual orientation existing on a continuum versus discrete categories or a control manipulation, and in Study 2 (460 participants in a nationally representative Qualtrics panel, 50% female) additionally read summaries describing sexual orientation as fluid versus stable across the life-course. After reading summaries, participants answered various questions about their sexual orientation. In Study 1, political moderates and progressives (but not conservatives) who read the continuous manipulation subsequently reported being less exclusively heterosexual, and regardless of political alignment, participants reported more uncertainty about their sexual orientation, relative to controls. In Study 2, after exposure to fluid or continuous manipulations heterosexual participants were up to five times more likely than controls to rate themselves as non-exclusively heterosexual. Additionally, those in the continuous condition reported more uncertainty about their sexual orientation and were more willing to engage in future same-sex sexual experiences, than those in the control condition. These results suggest that non-traditional theories of sexual orientation can lead heterosexuals to embrace less exclusive heterosexual orientations.

Political Alignment, Attitudes Toward Government, and Tax Evasion

We ask whether attitudes toward government play a causal role in the evasion of US personal income taxes. As turnover elections move voters in partisan counties into and out of alignment with the party of the president, we find with alignment (i) taxpayers report more easily evaded forms of income; (ii) suspect EITC claims decrease; and (iii) audits triggered and audits found to owe additional tax decrease. Coupled with evidence that alignment leads to more favorable views on taxation and spending, our results provide real world evidence that a positive outlook on government lowers tax evasion. (JEL D72, H24, H26, H31)

Local Alignments and Global Politics: Military Bureaucratic Axis, Subaltern Protests and Political Reversals in PostColonial Pakistan

In the Cold War environment of the 1950s, Pakistan army sought an alliance with the United States and the United Kingdom while they searched for allies in the Middle East and South Asia. At the same time, the military-bureaucratic establishment of Pakistan denied a democratic constitutional regime in the country and slowly transformed East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, into an internal colony. In East Pakistan, the pro-democracy movement was headed by Awami League (AL), a board coalition of constitutional autonomist and radical socialists and communist. Within the AL, Maulana Bhashani, a radical cleric, and his left wigs followers read into the global politics of Cold War alignment between the Pakistan and the USA to be a critical hindrance toward the democratization of politely, but constitutional autonomists within AL remained committed toward the Cold War military alliance. This lead to a split in the AL Consequently, In the wake of Suez War, global politics impinged upon local political alignment as much as local political alignment informed and influenced global politics in Pakistan.