The DOI matches its Crossref record; 38 of the 38 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Law of Group Polarization
Open accessAbstract
In a striking empirical regularity, deliberation tends to move groups, and the individuals who compose them, toward a more extreme point in the direction indicated by their own predeliberation judgments. For example, people who are opposed to the minimum wage are likely, after talking to each other, to be still more opposed; people who tend to support gun control are likely, after discussion, to support gun control with considerable enthusiasm; people who believe that global warming is a serious problem are likely, after discussion, to insist on severe measures to prevent global warming. This general phenomenon -- group polarization -- has many implications for economic, political, and legal institutions. It helps to explain extremism, "radicalization," cultural shifts, and the behavior of political parties and religious organizations; it is closely connected to current concerns about the consequences of the Internet; it also helps account for feuds, ethnic antagonism, and tribalism. Group polarization bears on the conduct of government institutions, including juries, legislatures, courts, and regulatory commissions. There are interesting relationships between group polarization and social cascades, both informational and reputational. Normative implications are discussed, with special attention to political and legal institutions.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
(1999) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 3,259
Sunstein, C. R. (1996) · Columbia Law Review · doi:10.2307/1123430 · Cited by 1,140
Self-citationWhat Do Judges and Justices Maximize? (The Same Thing Everybody Else Does)
Posner, R. A. (1993) · Supreme Court Economic Review · doi:10.1086/scer.3.1147064 · Cited by 839
A Behavioral Approach to Law and Economics
Jolls, C., Sunstein, C. R., & Thaler, R. H. (2000) · Behavioral Law and Economics · doi:10.1017/cbo9781139175197.002 · Cited by 749
Self-citationAn Economic Approach to the Law of Evidence
Posner, R. A. (1999) · Stanford Law Review · doi:10.2307/1229527 · Cited by 515
The Long-Run Growth in Obesity as a Function of Technological Change
Philipson, T., & Posner, R. (1999) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w7423 · Cited by 476
Cognition And Cost‐Benefit Analysis
Sunstein, C. R. (2000) · The Journal of Legal Studies · doi:10.1086/468105 · Cited by 436
Self-citationIncentives and Social Capital: Are Homeowners Better Citizens?
DiPasquale, D., & Glaeser, E. (1998) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w6363 · Cited by 397
Kessler, D., Meites, T., & Miller, G. (1996) · The Journal of Legal Studies · doi:10.1086/467977 · Cited by 374
Judicial Influence: A Citation Analysis of Federal Courts of Appeals Judges
Landes, W. M., Lessig, L., & Solimine, M. E. (1998) · The Journal of Legal Studies · doi:10.1086/468022 · Cited by 373
Sequential versus Unitary Trials: An Economic Analysis
Landes, W. M. (1993) · The Journal of Legal Studies · doi:10.1086/468159 · Cited by 352
The Economic Underpinnings of Patent Law
Dam, K. W. (1994) · The Journal of Legal Studies · doi:10.1086/467923 · Cited by 328
Public Schooling, Indoctrination, and Totalitarianism
Lott, Jr. (1999) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/250106 · Cited by 323
Explicit Reasons for Implicit Contracts: The Legal Logic to the Japanese Main Bank System
Ramseyer, J. M. (1995) · The Japanese Main Bank System · doi:10.1093/0198288999.003.0007 · Cited by 322
Bankruptcy Rules, Managerial Entrenchment, and Firm-Specific Human Capital
Picker, R. C., & Bebchuk, L. A. (1993) · bepress Legal Repository · Cited by 319
Simple Games in a Complex World: A Generative Approach to the Adoption of Norms
Picker, R. C. (1997) · The University of Chicago Law Review · doi:10.2307/1600216 · Cited by 317
The welfare economics of immigration law: a theoretical survey with an analysis of U.S. policy
Sykes, A. O. (1995) · Justice in Immigration · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511663789.008 · Cited by 305
Copyright Protection of Letters, Diaries, and Other Unpublished Works: An Economic Approach
Landes, W. M. (1992) · The Journal of Legal Studies · doi:10.1086/467901 · Cited by 302
Does a helping hand put others at risk?: affirmative action, police departments, and crime
Lott, J. (2000) · Economic Inquiry · doi:10.1093/ei/38.2.239 · Cited by 299
Karpoff, J. M., & Lott, J. R. (1999) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.160529 · Cited by 288
How Dramatically Did Women's Suffrage Change the Size and Scope of Government?
Lott, J. R. (1999) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.160530 · Cited by 287
Security Interests, Misbehavior, and Common Pools
Picker, R. C. (1992) · The University of Chicago Law Review · doi:10.2307/1599916 · Cited by 286
Environmental Violations, Legal Penalties, and Reputation Costs
Karpoff, J. M., Lott, J. R., & Rankine, G. (1998) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.137952 · Cited by 285
Some Economic Considerations in the Intellectual Property Protection of Software
Dam, K. W. (1995) · The Journal of Legal Studies · doi:10.1086/467962 · Cited by 278
Revisiting Auctions in Chapter 11
Baird, D. G. (1993) · The Journal of Law and Economics · doi:10.1086/467292 · Cited by 272
Budget Deficits and the Intergenerational Distribution of Lifetime Consumption
Shaviro, D. (1995) · bepress Legal Repository · Cited by 269
Credibly Committing to Efficiency Wages: Cotton Spinning Cartels in Imperial Japan
Ramseyer, J. M. (1993) · bepress Legal Repository · Cited by 247
Ethnic Norms And Their Transformation Through Reputational Cascades
Kuran, T. (1998) · The Journal of Legal Studies · doi:10.1086/468038 · Cited by 243
The Theory and Practice of Citations Analysis, with Special Reference to Law and Economics
Posner, R. A. (1999) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.179655 · Cited by 233
Should the Tax Law Require Current Accrual of Interest On Derivative Financial Instruments?Preprint
Weisbach, D. A. (1999) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.198949 · Cited by 231
Orwell Versus Huxley: Economics, Technology, Privacy, and SatirePreprint
Posner, R. A. (1999) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.194572 · Cited by 225
Market Signaling of Personal Characteristics
Fremling, G. M., & Posner, R. A. (1999) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.193490 · Cited by 202
Equality, Wealth, and Political Stability
Posner, R. A. (1997) · Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization · doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.jleo.a023387 · Cited by 188
Blackmail, Privacy, and Freedom of Contract
Posner, R. A. (1993) · University of Pennsylvania Law Review · doi:10.2307/3312575 · Cited by 169
Posner, R. A., & Philipson, T. (1992) · bepress Legal Repository · Cited by 168
Congress, Constitutional Moments, and the Cost-Benefit State
Sunstein, C. R. (1996) · Stanford Law Review · doi:10.2307/1229364 · Cited by 168
Self-citationIntroduction to Regression Analysis
(2024) · doi:10.61700/mafxx1369pcle1800 · Cited by 137
(2017) · University of Pittsburgh Press eBooks · doi:10.2307/j.ctt5vkhdp.44 · Cited by 120
Cited by
Chater, N., & Loewenstein, G. (2023) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x22002023 · Cited by 710
Echo chambers of denial: Explaining user comments on climate change
Walter, S., Brüggemann, M., & Engesser, S. (2018) · Environmental Communication · doi:10.1080/17524032.2017.1394893 · Cited by 158
“This reinforcement and support can produce more extreme opinions and increase polarization in societies (Sunstein, 2003).”
BackgroundGenerative Echo Chamber? Effect of LLM-Powered Search Systems on Diverse Information Seeking
Sharma, N., Liao, Q. V., & Xiao, Z. (2024) · Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3613904.3642459 · Cited by 132
Modeling the emergence of affective polarization in the social media society
Törnberg, P., Andersson, C., Lindgren, K., & Banisch, S. (2021) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0258259 · Cited by 118
A Diachronic Cross-Platforms Analysis of Violent Extremist Language in the Incel Online Ecosystem
Baele, S., Brace, L., & Ging, D. (2024) · Terrorism and Political Violence · doi:10.1080/09546553.2022.2161373 · Cited by 69
Metadata
- Authors
- Sunstein, C. R.
- Venue
- SSRN Electronic Journal
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1999
- ISSN
- 1556-5068 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2145554190
- Cited by
- 384
- References
- 38
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.