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Understanding Polarization: Meanings, Measures, and Model Evaluation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Aaron Bramson ,
Patrick Grim ,
Daniel J. Singer ,
William J. Berger ,
Graham Sack ,
Steven Fisher ,
Carissa Flocken  and
Bennett Holman
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Abstract

Polarization is a topic of intense interest among social scientists, but there is significant disagreement regarding the character of the phenomenon and little understanding of underlying mechanics. A first problem, we argue, is that polarization appears in the literature as not one concept but many. In the first part of the article, we distinguish nine phenomena that may be considered polarization, with suggestions of appropriate measures for each. In the second part of the article, we apply this analysis to evaluate the types of polarization generated by the three major families of computational models proposing specific mechanisms of opinion polarization.

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Type
Research Article
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Philosophy of Science , Volume 84 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 115 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

We are especially thankful to Jiin Jung and various conference audiences for their incredibly helpful feedback on previous versions of this research.

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