Social Sciences · Communication
Simulations involving thousands of language-model agents found that their opinions could become polarized as they interacted over time. The agents also formed clustered social networks, allowing researchers to test how diverse interactions and confirmation bias might affect division.
A theory article proposes the concept of a “digital citizenship prerequisite” to describe how online public services may make access to social rights depend on people’s digital resources. It argues that this can weaken the welfare state’s universal reach in practice, especially for people with lower incomes, less education, older people and rural residents.
A study finds that mainstream parties’ adoption of far-right anti-Muslim rhetoric can weaken opposition to prejudice beyond attitudes toward Muslims. The effect appeared in Germany when the rhetoric came from mainstream parties, but not in comparable experiments in Denmark.
Three national surveys estimated that 4.9% of non-Hispanic white adults in the United States support white nationalism, including 13.5% of white men aged 18 to 29. Support was more common among people facing hardship, those with lower incomes and education, Republicans and conservatives, and people whose close friendships were mainly online.
Researchers tested three AI systems designed to correct climate misinformation. The system that broke debunking into subtasks produced more relevant facts than a basic single-prompt system, while a version using authoritative outside sources was better at identifying and explaining misleading reasoning.
A study of three nationally representative US surveys finds that many Americans feel similarly about both major parties. These people fall into two groups—one lukewarm toward both parties and one cold toward both—with different reported attitudes toward and participation in democracy.
