Examining the Influence of Social Media on Political Polarization and the Ideological Gap of Young People in the United States

Examining the Influence of Social Media on Political Polarization and the Ideological Gap of Young People in the United States

Presenter(s)

Emily Antognoli

Comments

9:00-10:15, Kennedy Union Ballroom

Description

In the 2024 election, roughly 50% of white men under the age of thirty supported the conservative presidential nominee, Donald Trump (Brown, 2024). In contrast, young women under the age of thirty have begun shifting more liberal beginning in 1999 (Saad, 2024). Certain media outlets, such as Fox News, may exacerbate the perceived differences between political groups and may contribute to the increasing feelings of status threat, political polarization, and out-group biases leading to alt-right extremism (Isom et al., 2021).The present study will examine the relationships between ambivalent sexism, political collective narcissism, social dominance orientation, zero-sum thinking, with trust in conservative media, status threat, interests in guns and civic engagement. The online survey will launch in mid-March 2025. We aim to recruit 200 undergraduate participants enrolled in Introduction to Psychology courses at the University of Dayton. First, participants will answer questions on the political collective narcissism scale (Golec de Zavala et al., 2009), Ambivalent Sexism Scale (Rollero et al., 1999), the zero-sum thinking scale (Chinoy et al., 2023), and the social dominance orientation scale (Ho et al., 2015). Then, participants will answer questions about the study’s outcomes such as their trust in conservative media, status threat, gun interest, and civic engagement interest. We expect to find that white men will score higher on the political collective narcissism, ambivalent sexism, zero-sum thinking, and social dominances orientation scales, more likely to trust conservative media, will be more interested in guns, and less interested in civic engagement. These results will provide insight on how media consumption, gender attitudes, status threat, and societal perceptions contribute to the growing political polarization and turn to alt-right extremism observed in young men and women in past two decades.

Publication Date

4-23-2025

Project Designation

Independent Research

Primary Advisor

Joy E. Losee

Primary Advisor's Department

Psychology

Keywords

Stander Symposium, College of Arts and Sciences

Institutional Learning Goals

Critical Evaluation of Our Times; Diversity; Scholarship

Examining the Influence of Social Media on Political Polarization and the Ideological Gap of Young People in the United States

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