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Lecture “Differential information deficits do not explain political polarization” by Endre Begby

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Lecture “Differential information deficits do not explain political polarization” by Endre Begby

Datum evenement: 15 May 2025
Locatie: Hybrid: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Zoom

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When: 15 May 2025, 3.30 CT
Registration: send an e-mail to extremebeliefs.fgw@vu.nl, to receive the location and/or zoomlink.

“Differential information deficits do not explain political polarization: A closer look at Partisan Selective Exposure Theory.”

Abstract: According to Partisan Selective Exposure Theory, contemporary tendencies toward political polarization can be explained by the fact that people increasingly get their news from different politically aligned sources. Either through individual choice or by algorithmic filtering, we are led into “information bubbles” where we are only exposed to news-stories and perspectives that corroborate our pre-existing outlooks. As a result, different groups predictably suffer from different information deficits and might as well be “inhabiting different worlds,” as far as political epistemology Is concerned.
In this talk, I will argue that the problem with Partisan Selective Exposure Theory is not just its lack of empirical grounding but that its underlying explanatory model is misguided: in brief, it treats as a problem of information access what is better considered in terms of information processing. Accordingly, its proposed remedies and normative implications are also potentially counterproductive: in antagonistic information environments, they might in fact render us more vulnerable to manipulation and radicalization.
Endre Begby, Simon Fraser University

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This project is funded by:

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
European Research Council
European Union