Social Media, Messaging Apps, and Affective Polarization in the United States and Japan
Abstract
This study explores how emerging media platforms (i.e., social media and messaging apps) contribute to affective political polarization. We rely on cross-national data (USA and Japan), which allows us to explore the broader implications of how emerging media platforms contribute to political polarization in different cultural contexts. The results are very consistent; social media news use is positively related to affective polarization while messaging apps are negatively related in the USA and Japan. In addition, in the USA, the association of messaging app news and affective polarization is amplified by partisanship strength.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
El mayor consumo de noticias a través de redes sociales está positivamente relacionado con la polarización afectiva.
“Lee et al. (2022) encuentran que el mayor consumo de noticias a través de redes sociales está positivamente relacionado con la polarización afectiva.”
From Política, uso de medios y polarización afectiva en España (2024) · cites this paper as Lee et al. (2022)
During close election campaigns, people eschew political conversations with adversaries by skipping family reunions or shortening Thanksgiving dinners.
“during close election campaigns, people eschew political conversations with adversaries by skipping family reunions or shortening Thanksgiving dinners231.”
From Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts (2022) · cites this paper as [231]
Cites
The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States
Iyengar, S., Lelkes, Y., Levendusky, M., Malhotra, N., & Westwood, S. J. (2019) · Annual Review of Political Science · doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-051117-073034 · Cited by 3,317 · see citing works
Iyengar, S., Sood, G., & Lelkes, Y. (2012) · Public Opinion Quarterly · doi:10.1093/poq/nfs038 · Cited by 2,748 · see citing works
Red Media, Blue Media: Evidence of Ideological Selectivity in Media Use
Iyengar, S., & Hahn, K. S. (2009) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.01402.x · Cited by 1,940 · see citing works
Exposure to opposing views on social media can increase political polarization
Bail, C. A., Argyle, L. P., Brown, T. W., Bumpus, J. P., Chen, H., Hunzaker, M. B. F., Lee, J., Mann, M., Merhout, F., & Volfovsky, A. (2018) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1804840115 · Cited by 1,863 · see citing works
Are people incidentally exposed to news on social media? A comparative analysis
Fletcher, R., & Nielsen, R. K. (2018) · New Media & Society · doi:10.1177/1461444817724170 · Cited by 738 · see citing works
Yarchi, M., Baden, C., & Kligler-Vilenchik, N. (2021) · Political Communication · doi:10.1080/10584609.2020.1785067 · Cited by 437 · see citing works
Need fulfillment and experiences on social media: A case on Facebook and WhatsApp
Karapanos, E., Teixeira, P., & Gouveia, R. (2016) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.10.015 · Cited by 316 · see citing works
The New Personal Influence: How Our Facebook Friends Influence the News We Read
Anspach, N. M. (2017) · Political Communication · doi:10.1080/10584609.2017.1316329 · Cited by 289 · see citing works
Brunborg, G. S., & Burdzovic Andreas, J. (2019) · Journal of Adolescence · doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.06.013 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Lu, Y., & Lee, J. K. (2019) · Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · doi:10.1177/1077699018811295 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts
Jost, J. T., Baldassarri, D. S., & Druckman, J. N. (2022) · Nature Reviews Psychology · doi:10.1038/s44159-022-00093-5 · Cited by 276 · see citing works
Política, uso de medios y polarización afectiva en España
Crespo-Martínez, I., Melero-López, I., Mora-Rodríguez, A., & Rojo-Martínez, J.-M. (2024) · Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación · doi:10.14198/medcom.26681 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Cuéllar Rivero, R. (2024) · Revista Española de Ciencia Política · doi:10.21308/recp.64.07 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Lee, S., Rojas, H., & Yamamoto, M.
- Affiliations
- New Mexico State University (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- University at Albany, State University of New York (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lee, Sangwon
- Venue
- Mass Communication and Society
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2021-08-03
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 673-697
- ISSN
- 1520-5436 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7825
- OpenAlex
- W3178620517
- Cited by
- 52
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 11.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Mass Communication & Society (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Wisconsin Foundation (AAA2223)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Keywords
- social media, messaging apps, news consumption, partisanship, cross-national comparison, United States, Japan
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
