Towards global equity in political polarization research
Fuente:
arXiv
Salvato in:
| Autori principali: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2025
|
| Soggetti: | |
| Accesso online: | |
| Tags: |
Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
|
| _version_ | 1866915243890835456 |
|---|---|
| author | Falkenberg, Max Cinelli, Matteo Galeazzi, Alessandro Bail, Christopher A. Benito, Rosa M Bruns, Axel Gruzd, Anatoliy Lazer, David Lee, Jae K McCoy, Jennifer Nagayoshi, Kikuko Rand, David G Scala, Antonio Siegel, Alexandra van der Linden, Sander Varol, Onur Weber, Ingmar Wojcieszak, Magdalena Zollo, Fabiana Baronchelli, Andrea Quattrociocchi, Walter |
| author_facet | Falkenberg, Max Cinelli, Matteo Galeazzi, Alessandro Bail, Christopher A. Benito, Rosa M Bruns, Axel Gruzd, Anatoliy Lazer, David Lee, Jae K McCoy, Jennifer Nagayoshi, Kikuko Rand, David G Scala, Antonio Siegel, Alexandra van der Linden, Sander Varol, Onur Weber, Ingmar Wojcieszak, Magdalena Zollo, Fabiana Baronchelli, Andrea Quattrociocchi, Walter |
| contents | With a folk understanding that political polarization refers to socio-political divisions within a society, many have proclaimed that we are more divided than ever. In this account, polarization has been blamed for populism, the erosion of social cohesion, the loss of trust in the institutions of democracy, legislative dysfunction, and the collective failure to address existential risks such as Covid-19 or climate change. However, at a global scale there is surprisingly little academic literature which conclusively supports these claims, with half of all studies being U.S.-focused. Here, we provide an overview of the global state of research on polarization, highlighting insights that are robust across countries, those unique to specific contexts, and key gaps in the literature. We argue that addressing these gaps is urgent, but has been hindered thus far by systemic and cultural barriers, such as regionally stratified restrictions on data access and misaligned research incentives. If continued cross-disciplinary inertia means that these disparities are left unaddressed, we see a substantial risk that countries will adopt policies to tackle polarization based on inappropriate evidence, risking flawed decision-making and the weakening of democratic institutions. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_11090 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Towards global equity in political polarization research Falkenberg, Max Cinelli, Matteo Galeazzi, Alessandro Bail, Christopher A. Benito, Rosa M Bruns, Axel Gruzd, Anatoliy Lazer, David Lee, Jae K McCoy, Jennifer Nagayoshi, Kikuko Rand, David G Scala, Antonio Siegel, Alexandra van der Linden, Sander Varol, Onur Weber, Ingmar Wojcieszak, Magdalena Zollo, Fabiana Baronchelli, Andrea Quattrociocchi, Walter Social and Information Networks Physics and Society With a folk understanding that political polarization refers to socio-political divisions within a society, many have proclaimed that we are more divided than ever. In this account, polarization has been blamed for populism, the erosion of social cohesion, the loss of trust in the institutions of democracy, legislative dysfunction, and the collective failure to address existential risks such as Covid-19 or climate change. However, at a global scale there is surprisingly little academic literature which conclusively supports these claims, with half of all studies being U.S.-focused. Here, we provide an overview of the global state of research on polarization, highlighting insights that are robust across countries, those unique to specific contexts, and key gaps in the literature. We argue that addressing these gaps is urgent, but has been hindered thus far by systemic and cultural barriers, such as regionally stratified restrictions on data access and misaligned research incentives. If continued cross-disciplinary inertia means that these disparities are left unaddressed, we see a substantial risk that countries will adopt policies to tackle polarization based on inappropriate evidence, risking flawed decision-making and the weakening of democratic institutions. |
| title | Towards global equity in political polarization research |
| topic | Social and Information Networks Physics and Society |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.11090 |