Affective Polarization, Media Outlets, and Opinion Dynamics

44 Pages Posted: 3 Nov 2023

See all articles by Sebastiano Della Lena

Sebastiano Della Lena

Monash University - Department of Economics

Luca Paolo Merlino

Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)

Yves Zenou

Monash University - Department of Economics; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IUI); IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Stockholm University

Date Written: October 7, 2023

Abstract

We study opinion dynamics in a social network consisting of two groups. Agents update their opinions by conforming to the opinions of agents from their group and not conforming to the opinions of people from the other group (affective polarization) and by listening a media outlet that is a possible biased source of information. We characterize the long-run opinions and provide the conditions under which affective polarization and media outlet lead to ideological polarization. We also study the effect of homophily and group size on long-run opinions when agents in the same group are homogeneous.

Keywords: Network, polarization, opinion dynamics, identity, homophily

JEL Classification: C7, D7, D85.

Suggested Citation

Della Lena, Sebastiano and Merlino, Luca Paolo and Zenou, Yves, Affective Polarization, Media Outlets, and Opinion Dynamics (October 7, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4595200 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4595200

Sebastiano Della Lena

Monash University - Department of Economics

Luca Paolo Merlino

Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)

Yves Zenou (Contact Author)

Monash University - Department of Economics ( email )

Australia

Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IUI) ( email )

P.O. Box 5501
S-114 85 Stockholm
Sweden

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Stockholm University ( email )

Universitetsvägen 10
Stockholm, Stockholm SE-106 91
Sweden

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