Our skewed sense of political debate
Spend time on social media or news sites and it feels like America is in constant argument. Off-hand remarks often spark fierce screaming matches. Partisanship is up, Gallup tells us, while trust in institutions is down.
However, a new study, co-authored by Assistant Professor Erica R. Bailey and colleagues from Columbia Business School, suggests this perception may not accurately reflect the nature and frequency of political debates among everyday Americans. In three studies involving nearly 3,000 participants, researchers found most debates occur not with strangers on social media but among family and friends.
The most common debate topics were aligned with major topics in the news—including gun control, reproductive rights, vaccines, climate change, and democracy. Moreover, participants often felt positive after such discourse, suggesting that discussions, even on divisive topics, often ended on a constructive note.
“We theorize that we have these misperceptions because of algorithmic amplification of negative media and negative interactions on social media coupled with the fact that we tend to remember negative information,” says Bailey. “It creates a perception that we’re all just fighting with strangers.”
In fact, one study with a representative sample of nearly 2,000 Americans showed that people overestimate how frequently others engage in debates—a misperception that is especially pronounced for debates with strangers online. This has psychological costs.
“Our findings suggest that Americans may experience a false reality about the landscape of debate which can unnecessarily undermine their hope about the future,” the researchers wrote in the study, published in Scientific Reports. By assuming that debates are overwhelmingly negative and frequent, people may feel a sense of futility about political engagement and discourse. (The researchers cautioned that this connection was largely correlational.)
Educating the public about the actual dynamics of debates could help mitigate feelings of despair and encourage more constructive and hopeful engagement with political processes.
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