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1. Polarizing Political Polls: How Visualization Design Choices Can Shape Public Opinion and Increase Political Polarization

   https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2023.3326512  

   Holder, Eli; Bearfield, Cindy Xiong (January 2023, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics)

   While we typically focus on data visualization as a tool for facilitating cognitive tasks (e.g. learning facts, making decisions), we know relatively little about their second-order impacts on our opinions, attitudes, and values. For example, could design or framing choices interact with viewers' social cognitive biases in ways that promote political polarization? When reporting on U.S. attitudes toward public policies, it is popular to highlight the gap between Democrats and Republicans (e.g. with blue vs red connected dot plots). But these charts may encourage social-normative conformity, influencing viewers' attitudes to match the divided opinions shown in the visualization. We conducted three experiments examining visualization framing in the context of social conformity and polarization. Crowdworkers viewed charts showing simulated polling results for public policy proposals. We varied framing (aggregating data as non-partisan “All US Adults,” or partisan “Democrat” / “Republican”) and the visualized groups' support levels. Participants then reported their own support for each policy. We found that participants' attitudes biased significantly toward the group attitudes shown in the stimuli and this can increase inter-party attitude divergence. These results demonstrate that data visualizations can induce social conformity and accelerate political polarization. Choosing to visualize partisan divisions can divide us further. 

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2. Politicization of a Pathogen: A Prospective Longitudinal Study of COVID ‐19 Responses in a Nationally Representative U.S. Sample

   https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12894  

   Relihan, Daniel P.; Holman, E. Alison; Garfin, Dana Rose; Ditto, Peter H.; Silver, Roxane Cohen (May 2023, Political Psychology)

   Understanding population‐level variability in responses to pathogens over time is important for developing effective health‐based messages targeted at ideologically diverse populations. Research from psychological and political sciences suggests that party and elite cues shape how people respond to major threats like climate change. Research on responses to the COVID‐19 pandemic suggests similar variability across party identities; however, prior work has methodological limitations. This prospective, longitudinal study of a large probability‐based nationally representative U.S. sample assessed in March–April 2020 (N = 6,514) and then 6 months later in September–October 2020 (N = 5,661) demonstrates that COVID‐19 fear, perceived COVID‐19 death risk, and reported health‐protective behaviors became increasingly polarized over the first 6 months of the pandemic. Initial differences between Democrats and Republicans failed to converge over time and became more pronounced. Responses among Republicans were further polarized by support for former President Donald Trump: Trump Republicans initially reported weaker responses to COVID‐19 than non‐Trump Republicans, and these differences became more pronounced over time. Importantly, political identity and Trump support were not linked to perceived infection risk of a nonpoliticized pathogen, the flu. Finally, political identity and Republican Trump support prospectively predicted COVID‐19 vaccine intentions 6 months into the pandemic. 

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3. Left Behind: Yachts, Dinghies, and Perceptions of Social Inequality in COVID-19

   https://doi.org/10.1080/00380253.2022.2133755  

   Ravenelle, Alexandrea J.; Conley, Jacob; Newell, Abigail (November 2022, The Sociological Quarterly)

   Little is known about how portrayals of American unity (i.e. “we’re all in this together”) have been received by essential workers on the front lines of the COVID risk divide, and how the pandemic may have contributed to perceptions of class inequality among lower-income workers. In this paper, we draw upon 192 in-depth interviews with precarious and gig-based workers in New York City. We find that during the height of the first wave of the pandemic, precarious workers often expressed frustration over class-based inequalities and antagonism toward elites. Many respondents expressed significant skepticism toward messages that the pandemic has brought Americans together. Instead, workers identified two distinct, class-based realities in New York: elite Americans are able to socially-distance in “mansions,” or on “yachts,” while precarious workers struggled to weather the storm in “dinghies.” Likewise, workers felt “abandoned” by wealthy owners and managers, who fled the city to socially-distanced homes in beach communities and surrounding suburbs. Our findings suggest that low-wage, high-risk workers articulate complex conceptualizations of inequality and convey grievances toward elites during the pandemic. This study contributes to broader literature on perceived inequality, the rise of noxious work, and the social consequences of COVID-19. 

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4. Attention to the COVID‐19 Pandemic on Twitter: Partisan Differences Among U.S. State Legislators

   https://doi.org/10.1111/lsq.12367  

   Kim, Taegyoon; Nakka, Nitheesha; Gopal, Ishita; Desmarais, Bruce_A; Mancinelli, Abigail; Harden, Jeffrey_J; Ko, Hyein; Boehmke, Frederick_J (December 2021, Legislative Studies Quarterly)

   Subnational governments in the United States have taken the lead on many aspects of the response to the COVID‐19 pandemic. Variation in government activity across states offers the opportunity to analyze responses in comparable settings. We study a common and informative activity among state officials—state legislators’ attention to the pandemic on Twitter. We find that legislators’ attention to the pandemic strongly correlates with the number of cases in the legislator’s state, the national count of new deaths, and the number of pandemic‐related public policies passed within the legislator’s state. Furthermore, we find that the degree of responsiveness to pandemic indicators differs significantly across political parties, with Republicans exhibiting weaker responses, on average. Lastly, we find significant differences in the content of tweets about the pandemic by Democratic and Republican legislators, with Democrats focused on health indicators and impacts, and Republicans focused on business impacts and opening the economy. 

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5. GuesSync!: An Online Casual Game To Reduce Affective Polarization

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3610190  

   Rajadesingan, Ashwin; Choo, Daniel; Zhang, Jessica; Inakage, Mia; Budak, Ceren; Resnick, Paul (October 2023, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction)

   The past decade in the US has been one of the most politically polarizing in recent memory. Ordinary Democrats and Republicans fundamentally dislike and distrust each other, even when they agree on policy issues. This increase in hostility towards opposing party supporters, commonly called affective polarization, has important ramifications that threaten democracy. Political science research suggests that at least part of this polarization stems from Democrats' misperceptions about Republicans' political views and vice-versa. Therefore, in this work, drawing on insights from political science and game studies research, we designed an online casual game that combines the relaxed, playful nonpartisan norms of casual games with corrective information about party supporters' political views that are often misperceived. Through an experiment, we found that playing the game significantly reduces negative feelings toward outparty supporters among Democrats, but not Republicans. It was also effective in improving willingness to talk politics with outparty supporters. Further, we identified psychological reactance as a potential mechanism that affects the effectiveness of depolarization interventions. Finally, our analyses suggest that the game versions with political content were rated to be just as fun to play as a game version without any political content suggesting that, contrary to popular belief, people do like to mix politics and play. 

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