Roos, Casper (2022) Friend or Foe: Effects of Perceived Structural Polarization in Agreeing or Disagreeing Dyads. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
The current research investigates the relationships between perceived structural polarization, avoidance, relational threat, open-mindedness, and extremity when talking to someone who agrees with you versus someone who disagrees. We expected the perception of structural polarization to decrease open-mindedness, and for it to increase avoidance when talking to someone who disagrees with you. Additionally, we expected structural polarization to increase relational threat and extremity when talking to someone who agrees with you. We manipulated structural polarization through a text which showed a selected topic as either high or low in structural polarization. We then directed participants to an online chat with one other participant who either shared their opinion on the selected topic or disagreed with them. We found no significant results to indicate that structural polarization leads to avoidance when talking to someone who disagrees with you or to extremity when talking to someone who agrees with you. However, the predicted relationship between structural polarization and open-mindedness was found, indicating that structural polarization is associated with lower open-mindedness. In additional analyses, we found that when talking to someone who agrees with you, avoidance leads to higher relational threat, while it leads to lower relational threat when talking to someone who disagrees with you. This novel finding indicates that engaging with a polarized topic when talking to someone who agrees with you can be seen as a way to strengthen or maintain your current relationship, while discussing it with someone who disagrees with you could potentially harm the relationship. Keywords: Polarization, avoidance, open-mindedness, relational threat, extremity, ingroup- outgroup, group dynamics, online communication
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Koudenburg, N. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Applied Social Psychology (ASP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 05 Aug 2022 12:22 |
| Last Modified: | 05 Aug 2022 12:22 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/1245 |
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