Apparent Bias: What Does Attitude Polarization Show?

B-Tier
Journal: International Economic Review
Year: 2019
Volume: 60
Issue: 4
Pages: 1675-1703

Authors (2)

Jean‐Pierre Benoît (not in RePEc) Juan Dubra (Universidad de Montevideo)

Score contribution per author:

1.009 = (α=2.02 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Many, though not all, experiments have found that exposing groups of subjects who disagree to the same evidence may cause their initial attitudes to strengthen and move further apart, or polarize. Some have concluded that findings of attitude polarization show that people process information in a biased manner so as to support their initial views. We argue that, on the contrary, polarization is often what we should expect to find in an unbiased Bayesian population, in the context of experiments that find polarization.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:wly:iecrev:v:60:y:2019:i:4:p:1675-1703
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25