Cited by 276Social and Intergroup PsychologyElectoral Systems and Political ParticipationOpinion Dynamics and Social Influence

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 324 of the 324 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 83 of the 438 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts

Open access
Jost, John T., Baldassarri, Delia S., Druckman, James N.·2022·Nature Reviews Psychology

Abstract

Healthy democratic polities feature competing visions of a good society but also require some level of cooperation and institutional trust. Democracy is at risk when citizens become so polarized that an ‘us versus them’ mentality dominates. Despite a vast multidisciplinary literature, no coherent conceptual framework of the microlevel dynamics that increase or decrease polarization has been presented. In this Review, we provide a conceptual framework to integrate scientific knowledge about cognitive–motivational mechanisms that influence political polarization and the social-communicative contexts in which they are enacted. Ego-justifying and group-justifying motives lead individuals to defend their own pre-existing beliefs and those of their in-group, respectively. However, a distinct class of system-justifying motives contributes to asymmetric forms of polarization. Whereas conservative-rightist ideology is associated with valuing tradition, social order and maintenance of the status quo, liberal-leftist ideology is associated with a push for egalitarian social change. These cognitive–motivational mechanisms interact with social influence processes linked to communication source, message and channel factors, all of which might contribute to increased or decreased polarization. We conclude with a discussion of unanswered questions and ways in which our framework can be extended to the study of culture and institutions. Democracy is at risk when citizens become so polarized that an ‘us versus them’ mentality dominates. In this Review, Jost et al. provide a conceptual framework that integrates scientific knowledge about cognitive–motivational mechanisms that influence political polarization and the social-communicative contexts in which they are enacted.

Overview

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TL;DR

This Review proposes a framework linking ego-, group-, and system-justifying cognitive–motivational mechanisms to three types of mass political polarization as they unfold in social-communicative contexts. It argues these mechanisms interact with source, message, and channel factors to increase or decrease issue/ideological polarization, partisan alignment, and affective polarization, with system justification producing asymmetric patterns.

Key findings

  • The paper distinguishes three operational definitions of mass polarization: issue/ideological polarization, partisan alignment, and affective polarization; it argues these can become mutually reinforcing, with evidence that issue polarization can fuel affective polarization and that affective polarization can exacerbate issue polarization and partisan alignment.
  • It identifies three cognitive–motivational mechanisms: ego-justification (for example, selective exposure, confirmation bias, disconfirmation bias, objectivity illusion), group-justification (in-group favouritism, out-group derogation, stereotyping, social projection), and system-justification (defence of the status quo, correlated with conservatism).
  • It reports asymmetric polarization patterns: the correlation between partisanship and ideology rose from roughly r = 0.4 in 1988 to r = 0.6 in 2012; Republicans overestimated the percentage of Democrats who were LGBTQ by 25 points, while Democrats overestimated the percentage of Republicans who were evangelicals by 20 points; support for economic regulation declined sharply among rank-and-file Republicans between 1984 and 2010 while remaining unchanged among Democrats.
  • Social-communicative factors matter: out-group mentions increased sharing of media-outlet posts by estimated diffusion rates of 29–57%, and congressional posts mentioning the out-group increased diffusion by 58–180%; a Facebook deactivation experiment reduced issue polarization and, to a lesser extent, affective polarization, while exposure to counter-attitudinal news reduced affective polarization without changing political opinions.

Methods

  • Design: conceptual/narrative review that integrates multidisciplinary literature and proposes a framework rather than testing new hypotheses with primary data.
  • Data/sample: no original sample; synthesizes published experimental, survey, longitudinal, archival, and social media studies, with primary focus on the US context.
  • Main analysis: organizes evidence around three cognitive–motivational mechanisms (ego-, group-, and system-justification) and social-communicative contexts using McGuire’s communication/persuasion matrix, especially source, message, and channel factors.

Limitations

  • Stated: the authors could not cover structural and institutional factors such as demographic shifts, party systems and electoral rules, and economic performance and inequality; they focus primarily on the US because most relevant research has been conducted there.
  • Stated: the empirical literature has not advanced enough to hypothesize precisely how any given political communication will interact with cognitive–motivational mechanisms in specific contexts; few studies actually connect mechanisms to polarization outcomes, and the framework cannot easily explain historically changing polarization levels or elites’ communication strategies.
  • Evident: as a narrative review, it does not use a systematic search or meta-analytic procedure, and receiver/target factors and cross-national institutional variation are acknowledged but not fully developed.

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Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s44159-022-00093-5

Cites

324 of 324 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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Claims the paper makes

82 No full text of the sources · 39 Partly supported · 22 Own interpretation · 15 Not checked yet · 13 Supported · 12 Supported so far · 4 Sources not found · 3 No basis given · 2 Not supported · 2 Couldn’t confirm · 1 Mixed support · accuracy not yet measured

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  • Probably not a substantial claim. 32
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 67
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 1
91 of 91
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    No coherent conceptual framework of the microlevel dynamics that increase or decrease polarization has been presented.

    “Despite a vast multidisciplinary literature, no coherent conceptual framework of the microlevel dynamics that increase or decrease polarization has been presented.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The vast majority of the relevant research to date has been conducted in the US context.

    “We focus primarily on the US context, because this is where the vast majority of the relevant research to date has been conducted.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The kinds of cognitive and motivational mechanisms described above play mediating (or, in some cases, moderating) roles in explaining whether specific messages communicated by certain sources are persuasive or serve to increase or decrease political polarization.

    “A guiding assumption of this general approach is that the kinds of cognitive and motivational mechanisms described above play mediating (or, in some cases, moderating) roles in explaining, for instance, whether specific messages communicated by certain sources are persuasive — or, in the present context, serve to increase or decrease political polarization.”
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Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 13

  1. Sartori, G. Parties And Party Systems: A Framework For Analysis Vol. 1 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1976).
  2. Fiorina, M. P. The decline of collective responsibility in American politics. Daedalus 109, 25–45 (1980).
  3. McCarty, N., Poole, K. T. & Rosenthal, H. Polarized America: the Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches (MIT Press, 2016).
  4. Broockman, D. E., Kalla, J. L. & Westwood S. J. Does affective polarization undermine democratic norms or accountability? Am. J. Polit. Sci. (in the press).
  5. Fiorina, M. P., Abrams, S. J. & Pope, J. C. Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America 3rd edn (Pearson Longman, 2010).
  6. Fiorina, M. P. Unstable majorities: Polarization, Party Sorting, and Political Stalemate (Hoover Press, 2017).
  7. Lipset, S. M. & Rokkan, S. in Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives 1–64 (The Free Press, 1967).
  8. Jost, J. T., Hennes, E. P. & Lavine, H. in The Oxford Handbook of Social Cognition (ed. Carlston, D. E.) 851–875 (Oxford Univ. Press, 2013).
  9. Jost, J. T. Left And Right: The Psychological Significance Of A Political Distinction (Oxford Univ. Press, 2021).
  10. Mercier, H. in Cognitive Illusions: Intriguing Phenomena In Thinking, Judgment And Memory (ed. Pohl, R. F.) 99–114 (Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2017).
  11. Barberá, P. in Social Media and Democracy: The State of the Field (eds Persily, N. & Tucker, J.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2020).
  12. Rossiter, E. The consequences of interparty conversation on outparty affect and stereotypes. Preprint at http://erossiter.com/files/conversations.pdf (2020).
  13. Busby, E. C., Flynn, D. J., & Druckman, J. N. in Doing News Framing Analysis II (ed. D’Angelo, P.) (Routledge, 2018).

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Metadata

Authors
Jost, J. T., Baldassarri, D. S., & Druckman, J. N.
Affiliations
  • New York University (US)
  • Northwestern University (US)
Corresponding author
Jost, John T.
Venue
Nature Reviews Psychology
Published
2022-08-01
Volume
1
Issue
10
Pages
560-576
ISSN
2731-0574 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4289261447
Cited by
276
References
322
Citations by year
2026: 78 · 2025: 85 · 2024: 64 · 2023: 43 · 2022: 5
FWCI
9.40
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Reviews Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence
Keywords
political polarization, system justification, ideology, right-wing ideology, left-wing ideology, social influence, communication sources, democratic legitimacy, ingroup identification, us versus them

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