Bursting people’s political bubbles could make them even more partisan

Politics is polarizing enough, especially when it’s easier than ever to find a group of like-minded friends online. The antidote, then, seems obvious: pop the bubble. Step outside the echo chamber. Reach out for other points of view.

For example, to combat the rampant spread of hate speech, harassment and conspiracy theories, Twitter started “experimenting with features that would promote alternative viewpoints in Twitter’s timeline to address misinformation and reduce ‘echo chambers,’ ” The Post recently reported.

But breaking the bubble, it turns out, might not work. It might even backfire. Despite decades of psychology research that shows fostering contact between “us” and “them” is a powerful way to reduce prejudice, scientists are starting to find that you can’t just shove people together — online or in person — and expect the interaction to have miraculous effects.

—

The “contact hypothesis” has been supported by hundreds of studies that show bringing two groups face-to-face is a way to unearth common ground and reduce prejudice. But researchers have recently revealed that the details of how to use contact as a systematic tool to decrease racism or ethnic tension in the real world is still poorly understood.

“It’s been a pillar in the psychology literature. Everyone teaches it when you do Psych 101 and intergroup conflict,” said Betsy Levy Paluck, a psychologist at Princeton University, who recently published a comprehensive analysis of the evidence behind the idea.

Read the whole story (subscription may be required): The Washington Post