Podcasts about polarization lab

Jepson student Kate Chasin, '26, sits down with Jepson Leadership Forum speaker Christopher Bail, professor of sociology, political science, and public policy at Duke University; associate of the Duke Initiative for Science and Society; and founding director of the Polarization Lab at Duke University, prior to his Jepson Leadership Forum presentation "Bridging Divides with Generative AI." The 2024-25 Jepson Leadership Forum invites scholars and experts to discuss how division and polarization affect American democracy. We will explore how and why divisions have manifested historically and currently in the United States, focusing on their impact on justice, education, politics, culture, technology, and class. Are division and the struggle to find common ground making us stronger or tearing us apart? Take 5 is a series of informal interviews with the scholars and experts who present as part of the lecture series. Oct. 1, 2024

The Jepson Leadership Forum presents Christopher Bail, professor of sociology, political science, and public policy at Duke University; associate of the Duke Initiative for Science and Society; and founding director of the Polarization Lab at Duke University, for a discussion on "Bridging Divides with Generative AI." Oct. 1, 2024

With Chris Bail, Founding Director of the Polarization Lab. The fact that social media platforms draw out and reward anti-social, polarizing behaviour goes hand-in-hand with the gendered hate and abuse so common to digital interactions. We can't fix one without fixing the other.    Nor can we ignore what social media does for us psychologically and socially. We use these platforms to build our personal identities. We use them to find community and a sense of belonging. This doesn't have to be a bad thing. It's often a good thing. But it gets dangerous when platforms reward attacking and hurtful behaviour, when they encourage the targeting of vulnerable people, and when they make it easy to exert power over those with less power.  In that sense, it's easy to see why women, girls, and gender-diverse people, especially those who face multiple barriers, are so unsafe in digital spaces. Digital spaces reinforce and amplify the unbalanced power and abuse we know too well in our day-to-day lives.   There's a glimmer of hope: digital spaces are ultimately human built. The fact that they're like this is not inevitable and it's not unchangeable. Over coming months, we're delving into this with leading experts and content creators, releasing in-depth episodes every single week. We talk about the problem and what we can do to change it. We offer practical tips to help you in your digital life, and we talk about what it means to “take back the tech” for all of us.  We're joined by Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. He studies political tribalism, extremism, and social psychology using data from social media and tools from the emerging field of computational social science. He is the author of Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make our Platforms Less Polarizing. A Guggenheim Fellow and Carnegie Fellow, Chris's research appears in leading publications such as Science, the American Journal of Public Health, and New York Times. He appeared on NBC Nightly News, CBS News, BBC, and CNN. His research has been covered by Wired, The Atlantic, Scientific American, and more. He regularly lectures to government, business, and the non-profit sector and consults with social media platforms struggling to combat polarization. He serves on the Advisory Committee to the National Science Foundation's Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate and helped create Duke's Interdisciplinary Data Science Program. Chris received his PhD from Harvard University in 2011.  Relevant Links: Polarization Lab, The Facts about Gendered Digital Hate, Harassment, and Violence  Brief Listener Survey: did this episode help you? Fill out and be entered to win a great prize pack!  Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠  Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and share it with others. If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate at ⁠canadianwomen.org⁠ and consider becoming a monthly donor.  Facebook: Canadian Women's Foundation  Twitter: @cdnwomenfdn  LinkedIn: The Canadian Women's Foundation  Instagram: @canadianwomensfoundation  This series of podcast episodes has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

Almost everyone has an opinion about the impact of social media on political polarization. Most of us believe that Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube and other sites have made our civic life more angry and divided. But how much of this is true? Are consumers as much to blame as the platforms themselves?15 years ago, in the very early days of social media, many Americans had a much more positive view of this new technology. It was bringing friends and families together, opening up new sources of information, and that was viewed as a good thing.We discuss the surprising findings of research into social media and polarization with Professor Chris Bail, founder of the Polarization Lab at Duke University. He's the author of the 2021 book, “Breaking The Social Media Prism.” Bail studies political tribalism, extremism, and social psychology using data from social media and research from computational social science.This show was recorded during a week of chaos on Capitol Hill, right after the historic ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz who led the push to remove McCarthy, is one of a new generation of performative politicians, known more for their huge social media followings than their ability to get things done.Both Democrat and Republican hardliners are among those who have used Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to push politics to the extremes. Compromise is considered a dirty word by these politicians. Working out the complex, time-consuming details of legislation is hardly the stuff of clicks or headlines.In this episode we complicate the current social media narrative, learning more about algorithms, and user responses to them. This show is part of our podcast series on polarization, funded in part with a generous grant from Solutions Journalism Network. This non-profit group is about to celebrate its 10-year-anniversary.Recommendation: Richard enjoyed going to the movies recently and seeing "Past Lives", the latest film by Korean-Canadian- American playwright, Celine Song. Richard also gives a thumbs up to "The Morning Show" on Apple TV. Both feature the work of actress Greta Lee.Additional InformationThe Democracy Group listener surveyHow Do We Fix It? PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

Almost everyone has an opinion about the impact of social media on political polarization. Most of us believe that Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube and other sites have made our civic life more angry and divided. But how much of this is true? Are consumers as much to blame as the platforms themselves?15 years ago, in the very early days of social media, many Americans had a much more positive view of this new technology. It was bringing friends and families together, opening up new sources of information, and that was viewed as a good thing.We discuss the surprising findings of research into social media and polarization with Professor Chris Bail, founder of the Polarization Lab at Duke University. He's the author of the 2021 book, “Breaking The Social Media Prism.” Bail studies political tribalism, extremism, and social psychology using data from social media and research from computational social science.This show was recorded during a week of chaos on Capitol Hill, right after the historic ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz who led the push to remove McCarthy, is one of a new generation of performative politicians, known more for their huge social media followings than their ability to get things done.Both Democrat and Republican hardliners are among those who have used Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to push politics to the extremes. Compromise is considered a dirty word by these politicians. Working out the complex, time-consuming details of legislation is hardly the stuff of clicks or headlines.In this episode we complicate the current social media narrative, learning more about algorithms, and user responses to them. This show is part of our podcast series on polarization, funded in part with a generous grant from Solutions Journalism Network. This non-profit group is about to celebrate its 10-year-anniversary.Recommendation: Richard enjoyed going to the movies recently and seeing "Past Lives", the latest film by Korean-Canadian- American playwright, Celine Song. Richard also gives a thumbs up to "The Morning Show" on Apple TV. Both feature the work of actress Greta Lee. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris Bail, professor and director of the Polarization Lab at Duke University, talks about his work in computational social science, why social echo chambers don't work the way we think they do, how our needs for identity and community factor into extremism, and why the moderate majority is the quietest online. Plus, what online trolls are like in real life, how society's attraction to narcissists is part of the problem, and what a better social media could look like. Learn more about Chris' work HERE!!! Got your own story about cults, extreme belief, or abuse of power? Leave a voicemail or text us at 347-86-TRUST (347-868-7878) OR shoot us an email at Trust Me Pod @gmail.com INSTAGRAM: @TrustMePodcast @oohlalola @meaganelizabeth11 TWITTER: @TrustMeCultPod @ohlalola @baberahamhicks TIKTOK: @TrustMeCultPodcast

Dr. Justin Grimmer, Professor in Stanford University's Department of Political Science and co-author of Text as Data, and I discuss how and why turning text into data will be the future of the social sciences. Topics:Researching in the social sciences nowHow machine learning turns text into dataPrivacy and dataExamples and impactHow to develop a career in this intersection of machine learning and social scienceResources:Home Style - https://amzn.to/3uzqWeYCat's Cradle - https://amzn.to/3AIh9aFDr. Justin Grimmer is a Professor in Stanford University's Department of Political Science, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Co-Director of the Democracy and Polarization Lab.  His research focuses on Congress, elections, social media, and data science.  Socials! -Substack: https://taylorbledsoe.substack.com/Website: https://www.aimingforthemoon.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aiming4moon/Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aiming4MoonTaylor's Blog: https://www.taylorgbledsoe.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6-TwYdfPcWV-V1JvjBXkAll Amazon Affiliate links help financially support "Aiming for the Moon" while you get a great read or product

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Saumitra Jha about medieval ports, competition versus complementarity, marriage endogamy, the effect of military experience on the prevalence of violence and much more. Jha is a professor in the political economy group at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a senior fellow at the Center for Democracy, Development and Rule of Law in the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Affairs. He also convenes the Conflict and Polarization Lab within the Stanford King Center on Global Development. His research focuses on understanding the effectiveness of organizations and innovations that societies have developed to address the problems of violence and political risk in the past and to develop new lessons for contemporary policy. Click here to read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Saumitra on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Political Science Professor Sunshine Hillygus is the director of the Duke Initiative on Survey Methodology and co-director of the Polarization Lab. We discuss how attitudes can change and if we should trust finding that show large percentage of Americans have truly wacky* ideas. Plus, how the present regards the biggest moral issues of yesterday, as told through Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo. *Technical poly sci term. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After buying Twitter for $44 billion, Elon Musk is promising to protect free speech and bring about much-needed changes, including taking on bots and introducing an edit button to the platform. We take a closer look at the billionaire Tesla founder. For more analysis on what changes the latter might bring to Twitter, we speak to Chris Bail, Director of the Polarization Lab at Duke University.

Chris Bail is Professor of Sociology, Public Policy, and Data Science at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. A leader in the emerging field of computational social science, Bail's research examines fundamental questions of social psychology, extremism, and political polarization using social media data, bots, and the latest advances in machine learning.Bail is the recipient of Guggenheim and Carnegie Fellowships. His research appears in top journals, such as Science, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Sociological Review. ContributeA note from Lev:I am a high school teacher of history and economics at a public high school in NYC, and began the podcast to help demystify economics for teachers.  The podcast is now within the top 2% of podcasts worldwide in terms of listeners (per Listen Notes) and individual episodes are frequently listed by The Syllabus (the-syllabus.com) as among the 10 best political economy podcasts of a particular week.  The podcast is reaching thousands of listeners each month.  The podcast seeks to provide a substantive alternative to mainstream economics media; to communicate information and ideas that contribute to equitable and peaceful solutions to political and economic issues; and to improve the teaching of high school and university political economy. I am looking to be able to raise money in order to improve the technical quality of the podcast and website and to further expand the audience through professionally designed social media outreach. I am also hoping to hire an editor. Our goal is to raise $12,000 this year. If you can donate a few dollars each month it will help us reach that goal. And if you know of a family foundation that might be interested in donating to A Correction please be in touch. Thank you! (And a huge thank you to all of the people who have already supported the podcast!)Best, Lev

In the last decade, churches have been on the back foot when it comes to responding to changes in the technology and media landscape. There are too many things changing far too fast, and as soon as a trend appears, it ends as quickly as it came. And yet, churches easily feel the worst effects of this rapidly changing landscape: distraction, confusion, and above all, polarization and division among its members. Our pastors and ministry leaders cannot compete with the number of voices available to disciple us, nor the amount of time we spend with them each week. But what if fighting information with information, and tribalism with tribalism, wasn't the only option on the table? What if cutting through polarization and division was less about giving people better information, and more about giving people a better identity? What if many of the solutions posited for polarization and division were solutions that churches - and Christianity - are uniquely positioned to provide? After three episodes of bad news and diagnosing serious problems, now it's time for solutions - and this time, churches have the advantage.Episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/how-churches-can-break-the-social-media-prism--------Subscribe to Passing Through Digital Babylon, a Substack of insights and reflections from passing through the digital empire while journeying towards the heavenly city!Purchase a copy of Chris Bail's "Breaking the Social Media Prism" and check out the Polarization Lab!“Forget the Echo Chamber - Social Media is a Prism”  on FaithTech. “What Is Media Ecology? A Conversation with Austin Gravley” on YouTubeConnect with Austin and Breaking the Digital Spell* Twitter: @DigitalSpell and @gravley_austin* Instagram: @breakingthedigitalspell* YouTube: Breaking the Digital Spell* Facebook: BtDS Facebook Page* Email: breakingthedigitalspell@gmail.comSupport the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell)

We tackle social media's effect on political polarization with Dr. Chris Bail, author of Breaking the Social Media Prism, Duke professor, and director of the Polarization Lab. According to Dr. Bail, most of the population of America isn't actually polarized; social media only gives us that perception. Topics Discussed- The myth of echo chambersHow vocal and extreme, social media users influence our view of political polarizationWhat do you mean by "the social media prism?"Breaking the social media prism How to bring the moderates back to social mediaHow future tech will shape our perception of politicsFake news - who shares itHow do we fix tech in order to crack this perception?Chris Bail is Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. He studies political tribalism, extremism, and social psychology using data from social media and tools from the emerging field of computational social science. His widely acclaimed 2021 book, Breaking the Social Media Prism, was featured in the New York Times, the New Yorker, and described as “masterful,” and "immediately relevant" by Science Magazine.Our Website: https://www.aimingforthemoon.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aiming4moon/Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aiming4MoonYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6-TwYdfPcWV-V1JvjBXk

Episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/internet-trolls-and-the-quest-forThe amplification of extremists and the muting of moderates. When it comes to social media's impact on American politics (and many other subjects), Chris Bail argues the two biggest effects of the social media prism feed into each other, making political extremists embolden and empowered to troll anyone they can and for moderates to give up hope that nuanced political dialogue and opinions are possible anymore. What drives Internet trolls to be trolls? What gives moderates the impression that discussing controversial topics online is so risky despite being the largest voting bloc in the country? What if both Internet trolls and the average American use social media in completely different ways because they're both looking for the same thing - and what if a Christian writer named C.S. Lewis had something to say about all this more than 80 years ago?——Buy Me a Coffee and keep Breaking the Digital Spell a high quality ad-free experience! Leave a one-time tip (without making an account) or unlock exclusive content with a $5 monthly membership at buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell!Purchase a copy of Chris Bail's "Breaking the Social Media Prism" and check out the Polarization Lab!“Forget the Echo Chamber - Social Media is a Prism”  on FaithTech. “What Is Media Ecology? A Conversation with Austin Gravley” on YouTubeConnect with Austin and Breaking the Digital Spell* Twitter: @DigitalSpell and @gravley_austin* Instagram: @breakingthedigitalspell* YouTube: Breaking the Digital Spell* Facebook: BtDS Facebook Page* Email: breakingthedigitalspell@gmail.comSupport the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell) Support the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell)

每日英語跟讀 Ep.K280: We Should All Know Less About Each Other   In 2017, after the shock of Brexit and then Donald Trump's election, Christopher Bail, a professor of sociology and public policy at Duke University, set out to study what would happen if you forced people out of their social media echo chambers. 2017年，經歷過英國脫離歐盟與川普當選美國總統的震撼之後，美國杜克大學社會學與公共政策教授貝爾開始研究，逼迫人們脫離社群媒體同溫層會發生什麼事。 Bail is the director of The Polarization Lab, a team of social scientists, computer scientists and statisticians who study how technology amplifies political divisions. He and his colleagues recruited 1,220 Twitter users who identified as either Democrats or Republicans, offering to pay them $11 to follow a particular Twitter account for a month. Although the participants didn't know it, the Democrats were assigned to follow a bot account that retweeted messages from prominent Republican politicians and thinkers. The Republicans, in turn, followed a bot account that retweeted Democrats. 貝爾是「兩極化實驗室」主任，這個實驗室是社會科學家、電腦科學家和統計學家組成的團隊，研究科技如何擴大政治分歧。他和同事招募1220名自認是民主黨人或共和黨人的推特網友，要求每人關注一個特定推特帳號一個月，並各發11美元酬勞。受試者並不知道規則，但實際上，民主黨人會被指派關注一個轉發知名共和黨政治人物和意見領袖推文的機器人帳號，共和黨人則關注轉發民主黨意見領袖推文的機器人帳號。 At the time, a lot of concern about the internet's role in political polarization revolved around what digital activist Eli Pariser once called filter bubbles, a term for the way an increasingly personalized internet traps people in self-reinforcing information silos. 當時關於網路激化政治對立的作用，關注焦點集中在數位社會活動家帕里瑟曾說的「過濾泡泡」，這個詞描述日益個人化的網路內容會把人困在不斷自我增強的資訊孤島。 “The echo chamber idea was reaching its kind of apex in terms of its public influence,” Bail told me. “It nicely explained how Trump had won, how Brexit had happened.” Bail's team wanted to see if getting people to engage with ideas they wouldn't otherwise encounter might moderate their views. 貝爾告訴我：「同溫層這個概念對公眾的影響力已達頂峰，能很好地解釋為何川普當選，為何英國脫歐。」貝爾團隊想探究，讓人們接觸平常不會接觸的觀念，能否使他們的觀念變得溫和。 The opposite happened. “Nobody became more moderate,” Bail said. “Republicans in particular became much more conservative when they followed the Democratic bot, and Democrats became a little bit more liberal.” 結果適得其反。貝爾說：「沒有人變溫和，尤其是共和黨人，關注民主黨機器人帳號後變得保守許多，民主黨人則變得有點更偏向自由派。」 Social media platforms have long justified themselves with the idea that connecting people would make the world more open and humane. In offline life, after all, meeting lots of different kinds of people tends to broaden the mind, turning caricatures into complicated individuals. It's understandable that many once believed the same would be true on the internet. 社群媒體平台一直為自己辯護，他們的說法是連結人們能讓世界變得更開放仁慈。畢竟在離線世界，與形形色色的人相遇通常會讓心胸更開闊，會使原本心目中的荒謬人物變成複雜的個體。可以理解，許多人一度以為在線上也一樣。 But it turns out there's nothing intrinsically good about connection, especially online. 但結果是，連結本質上沒什麼好的，尤其在線上。 On the internet, exposure to people unlike us often makes us hate them, and that hatred increasingly structures our politics. 在網上，接觸不像我們的人往往會使我們恨他們，而這種恨意日益成為我們政治的結構。 The social corrosion caused by Facebook and other platforms isn't a side effect of bad management and design decisions. It's baked into social media itself. 臉書等平台引發的社會團結被侵蝕現象，並非管理不當和設計決策失誤引起的出乎意料後果，而是與社群媒體本身密不可分。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5919797

Episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/distorted-beyond-the-funhouse-mirrorWhen you stand in front of a funhouse mirror, your image in distorted in some bizarre and unusual way. Whether you get huge legs or a giant head, you know a funhouse mirror is not meant to give you a true reflection of yourself the way a normal mirror does. But what happens when a society or culture mistakes a funhouse mirror for a mirror capable of accurately reflecting culture and society around us? What if social media gives us outsized views of polarization, extremism, or other distortions of ourselves while pretending to be a truthful mirror, and what if - unlike a normal funhouse mirror - those distortions we see in social media stay with us even after we've stopped looking in the mirror? What direction do those distortions go, and how do they change how we see ourselves and those we disagree with? ——Purchase a copy of Chris Bail's "Breaking the Social Media Prism" and check out the Polarization Lab!“Forget the Echo Chamber - Social Media is a Prism”  on FaithTech. “What Is Media Ecology? A Conversation with Austin Gravley” on YouTubeConnect with Austin and Breaking the Digital Spell* Twitter: @DigitalSpell and @gravley_austin* Instagram: @breakingthedigitalspell* YouTube: Breaking the Digital Spell* Facebook: BtDS Facebook Page* Email: breakingthedigitalspell@gmail.comSupport the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell) Support the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell)

In an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools we have to understand each other. We use social media as a mirror to decipher our place in society but, as Chris Bail explains, it functions more like a prism that distorts our identities, empowers status-seeking extremists, and renders moderates all but invisible. Bail's book, Breaking the Social Media Prism, challenges common myths about echo chambers, foreign misinformation campaigns, and radicalizing algorithms, revealing that the solution to political tribalism lies deep inside ourselves. Drawing on innovative online experiments and in-depth interviews with social media users from across the political spectrum, this book explains why stepping outside of our echo chambers can make us more polarized, not less. Bail is professor of sociology and public policy at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. He is the author of Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream.Additional InformationBreaking the Social Media PrismThe Polarization LabBail's websiteBail on TwitterRelated EpisodesA path forward for social media and democracyFacebook is not a democracy

Episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/stepping-on-the-glass-of-broken-echoPolitical polarization and tribalism are on the rise, and social media appears to be the chief culprit. The ability to customize our social media feeds to only hear the voices we want to hear has lead us into echo chambers of increasingly one-sided viewpoints and unchecked misinformation - at least, that's what cultural wisdom suggests. But is that actually true? What actually happens when people step outside their "echo chambers"? Is information really the driving force behind the rise of political polarization, radical viewpoints, and extreme behavior on social media? Or, as secular sociologist Chris Bail and Christian philosopher James K.A. Smith both argue, are our behaviors and actions driven by something deeper than simply what we think - and how does the Gospel give the church an advantage in addressing polarization?——Purchase a copy of Chris Bail's "Breaking the Social Media Prism" and check out the Polarization Lab!“Forget the Echo Chamber - Social Media is a Prism”  on FaithTech. “What Is Media Ecology? A Conversation with Austin Gravley” on YouTubeConnect with Austin and Breaking the Digital Spell* Twitter: @DigitalSpell and @gravley_austin* Instagram: @breakingthedigitalspell* YouTube: Breaking the Digital Spell* Facebook: BtDS Facebook Page* Email: breakingthedigitalspell@gmail.comSupport the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell) Support the show (http://buymeacoffee.com/digitalspell)

(00:00-8:36): How can we develop spiritual practices? Brian and Aubrey discussed this and shared some of their spiritual practices.  (8:36-28:25): Dr. Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology & Public Policy at Duke University and Director of the Polarization Lab, joined Brian and Aubrey to chat about his book, “Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing.” Learn more about Chris and his book at chrisbail.net and connect with him on Twitter at @chris_bail *This interview originally aired on 5/24/21* (28:25-38:50): Brian and Aubrey chatted about their TOP FIVE Musicals. Aubrey's #2 pick was Wicked and Brian's #2 pick was Les Misérables. For the #1 spot, they both chose Hamilton! (38:50-46:22): Brian and Aubrey discussed Milton Quintanilla's Christian Headlines article, “Just 16 Percent of Millennials Classify as Born-Again Christians, Study Shows.”  (46:22-1:07:01): David French, Senior Editor at The Dispatch, Columnist for Time Magazine, and Author of, “Divided We Fall,” joined Brian and Aubrey to chat about a New York Times opinion piece he co-wrote, “We Disagree on a Lot of Things. Except the Danger of Anti-Critical Race Theory Laws, and some of his recent blog posts at The French Press, How Do Christian Patriots Love Their Country Well? and When the Aliens Come, Will Their Arrival Destroy Our Faith? Learn more about David at thedispatch.com and at his blog, The French Press.  *This interview originally aired on 7/7/21* (1:07:01-1:15:36): Brian and Aubrey shared their thoughts on Shane Pruitt's tweet, “if you're needing a word from God, go to the Word of God.”  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Social media is not fundamentally a source of information or a competition of ideas, but a competition of identities."  With that and other provocative findings, Dr. Chris Bail, Director of the Duke University Polarization Lab and author of Breaking the Social Media Prism (Princeton U. Press) challenges what we know about social media – its uses and abuses. Dr. Bail and his colleagues delineate the strong incentives to create online alter-egos, especially more extreme ones, that command so much more attention.    Social and political identity is dangerously challenging to shift. And Dr. Bail's experiments underscore this point. His team exposed hundreds of Democrats and Republicans to media feeds from the other point of view – but with completely unexpected results. Virtually no one became more moderate from this exposure and many participants, especially Republicans, doubled down on their identity.  Bail's broader point is how social media amplifies extremism and mutes moderation. His team has built tools to help users understand trolling, gauge online identity, and create more civil discourse through anonymity, guided discussion, and other techniques to reverse that trend.   To learn more about Polarization Lab tools, experiments, and why you really spend all those hours on social media, tune into “Nicest Troll in Town: On and Offline identity, Extremism, and Polarization,” with Dr. Chris Bail, Director of the Duke University Polarization Lab and author of the challenging new book, Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing (Princeton University Press, 2021). Original Music by Ryan Adair Rooney Our Guest Chris Bail The Polarization Lab  Chris Bail. Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing. Princeton University Press, 2021. Additional Resources Adam Hughes (10/23/19). “A small group of prolific users account for a majority of political tweets sent by U.S. adults.” Pew Research Foundation.  Emma Francois (2/9/21). “Always swipe left on a moderate.” Amanda Ripley.  Alex Horton (4/11/18). “Channeling ‘The Social Network,' lawmaker grills Zuckerberg on his notorious beginnings.” The Washington Post. Find us online! Twitter: @purpleprincipl Facebook: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast Instagram: @thepurpleprinciplepodcast Sign up for our newsletter! https://bit.ly/2UfFSja  Our website: https://fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/nicest-troll-in-town 

Chris Bail is a computational social scientist. He wrangles the data that our social interactions leave behind to better understand how ideas spread. He is Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. A Guggenheim and Carnegie Fellow, he studies political extremism on social media using tools from the emerging field of computational social science. He is the author of Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make our Platforms Less Polarizing. Things we mention in this episode:Internet bots for good and evil@simscreens: A Twitter bot tweeting out frames from The SimpsonsUsing Twitter bots to understand polarization (Bail et al., 2018)Many people just don't care about politics (check out my interview with Nathan Kalmoe)Dr. Bail's earlier work on how anti-Muslim sentiment spreads (Bail, 2016)Tools developed by the Polarization Lab to fight back against polarization---------------Check out my new audio course on Knowable: "The Science of Persuasion."For a transcript of this episode, visit: http://opinionsciencepodcast.com/episode/social-media-polarization-with-chris-bail/Learn more about Opinion Science at http://opinionsciencepodcast.com/ and follow @OpinionSciPod on Twitter.

Episode Notes It's no secret that people are more polarized than ever, and it's very clear in the age of social media. Conventional wisdom tells us that echo chambers, misinformation, and more are the leading causes of this polarization, but how can we know for sure? Today's guest is the author of Breaking the Social Media Prism, Chris Bail. He's a professor at Duke and the director of the Polarization Lab, and he's done a ton of research that we discuss in this episode. Follow Chris on Twitter @chris_bail Get a Copy of Breaking the Social Media Prism Visit the Polarization Lab website For the interview transcript visit www.TheRewiredSoul.com/interviews Follow @TheRewiredSoul on Twitter and Instagram Support The Rewired Soul: Get books by Chris Support on Patreon Try BetterHelp Online Therapy (affiliate) Donate

(00:00-7:48): Brian and Aubrey chatted about pursuing goals and dreams as we grow older. They discussed “Phil Mickelson's PGA win as the oldest major champ,” and Bob Dylan's 80th birthday. (7:48-17:13): Brian and Aubrey shared their thoughts on David French's blog post at The French Press, “Don't Let Fear of ‘Wokeness' Close Hearts and Minds.” (17:13-27:07): Brian and Aubrey chatted with listeners about the spiritual habits and other activities that have brought them joy over the past year.    (27:07-36:12): Why are so many people willing to wait in a long line at the drive-thru? Brian shared a story about an extremely long line at a Starbucks drive-thru and chatted with Aubrey about how the pandemic has caused us to avoid human interactions.   (36:12-46:44): Brian and Aubrey chatted about the season finales of Saturday Night Live and American Idol.   (46:44-1:06:42): Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology & Public Policy at Duke University and Director of the Polarization Lab, joined Brian and Aubrey to chat about his book, “Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing.” Learn more about Chris and his book at chrisbail.net and connect with him on Twitter at @chris_bail (1:06:42-1:13:05): Brian and Aubrey discussed Stephanie Vozza's Fast Company article, “3 pandemic habits you should keep in your post-COVID life.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris Bail is a professor of sociology and public policy at Duke and directs the Polarization Lab. He's done a lot of great research in the last half decade or so on how social media affects political polarization in our society. He's written a great book summarizing this research, called Breaking the Social Media Prism. It's out now, and it's a crucial read for understanding one of the defining topics of our age. In this conversation, Chris and I talk about Chris's experience moving to the Congo as a kid, figuring out how best to make an impact, the role of good mentorship, riding the wave of computational social science, and rethinking the mainstream narrative of what's going on with social media.

Greetings cool cats & kittens,Today I’m releasing my fascinating conversation with Chris Bail, who runs The Polarization Lab at Duke University. Chris has a new book out: Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing which presents analysis from a major study he and his colleagues in the lab conducted on polarization and social media. The study attempts to answer some of the most important questions we have about the role of social media as one of many mechanisms contributing to our polarization and hyperpartisanship. Using what we political scientists call a “mixed methods” approach, the study utilizes data and in-depth interviews to uncover a surprising finding- one that you might find counterintuitive. What is it? If I tell you here, you’ll miss out on our amazing conversation! Rachel Love this pod cast? Tell your family, friends, neighbors, your favorite Starbucks barista! Get full access to The Cycle- On Substack at thecycle.substack.com/subscribe

Polarisation is seen as a threat to democracy - and social media is seen as a cause. But what can be done? Does the blame really lie with tech alone? And what could the virtual public square look like if we dared to hit "reset" and redesigned our apps from scratch? A radical and counter-intuitive conversation between Chris Bail, head of the Polarization Lab at Duke University, and Samira Shackle, editor of New Humanist magazine, on tribalism,  extremism, and not logging off. For fans of Azeem Azhar, Jonathan Haidt, Nick Srnicek and Shoshana Zuboff.Podcast listeners can get a year's subscription to New Humanist magazine for just £13.50. Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASONHosts: Samira Shackle and Niki Seth-SmithExecutive producer: Alice BlochSound engineer: David CracklesMusic: DanosongsFurther Reading:"Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing" (2021) Chris Bailwww.polarizationlab.com"Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream" (2014) Chris Bail"The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion" (2012), Jonathan Haidt"The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" (2018) Shoshana Zuboff"Platform Capitalism" (2016) Nick Srnicek"Does the Left Have a Problem with Empathy?" (2020) Nicola Cutcher, New Humanist Magazine

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter PayPal Subscription 1 Dollar: https://tinyurl.com/yb3acuuy PayPal Subscription 3 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9l PayPal Subscription 5 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpz PayPal Subscription 10 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9m PayPal Subscription 20 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT This show is sponsored by Enlites, Learning & Development done differently. Check the website here: http://enlites.com/ Dr. Christopher Bail is Professor of Sociology, Public Policy, and Data Science at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. A leader in the emerging field of computational social science, Dr. Bail's research examines fundamental questions of social psychology, extremism, and political polarization using social media data, bots, and the latest advances in machine learning. Dr. Bail is the recipient of Guggenheim and Carnegie Fellowships. His research appears in top journals, such as Science, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Sociological Review. He is the author of the recent book, Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing. In this episode, we focus on Breaking the Social Media Prism. We go through topics like online political behavior; political polarization; the effects of political campaign; misinformation; eco-chambers; the social media prism; online extremism; how moderates get muted online; what social media platforms can do; solutions to fight against political polarization; Dr. Bail's social media platform, Discuss-It; and polarization during the covid-19 pandemic. -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS/SUPPORTERS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, PER HELGE LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, JERRY MULLER, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BERNARDO SEIXAS, HERBERT GINTIS, RUTGER VOS, RICARDO VLADIMIRO, CRAIG HEALY, OLAF ALEX, PHILIP KURIAN, JONATHAN VISSER, JAKOB KLINKBY, ADAM KESSEL, MATTHEW WHITINGBIRD, ARNAUD WOLFF, TIM HOLLOSY, HENRIK AHLENIUS, JOHN CONNORS, PAULINA BARREN, FILIP FORS CONNOLLY, DAN DEMETRIOU, ROBERT WINDHAGER, RUI INACIO, ARTHUR KOH, ZOOP, MARCO NEVES, COLIN HOLBROOK, SUSAN PINKER, THOMAS TRUMBLE, PABLO SANTURBANO, SIMON COLUMBUS, PHIL KAVANAGH, JORGE ESPINHA, CORY CLARK, MARK BLYTH, ROBERTO INGUANZO, MIKKEL STORMYR, ERIC NEURMANN, SAMUEL ANDREEFF, FRANCIS FORDE, TIAGO NUNES, BERNARD HUGUENEY, ALEXANDER DANNBAUER, OMARI HICKSON, FERGAL CUSSEN, YEVHEN BODRENKO, HAL HERZOG, NUNO MACHADO, DON ROSS, JONATHAN LEIBRANT, JOÃO LINHARES, OZLEM BULUT, NATHAN NGUYEN, STANTON T, SAMUEL CORREA, ERIK HAINES, MARK SMITH, J.W., JOÃO EIRA, TOM HUMMEL, SARDUS FRANCE, DAVID SLOAN WILSON, YACILA DEZA-ARAUJO, IDAN SOLON, ROMAIN ROCH, DMITRY GRIGORYEV, TOM ROTH, DIEGO LONDOÑO CORREA, YANICK PUNTER, ADANER USMANI, CHARLOTTE BLEASE, MIRAN B, NICOLE BARBARO, ADAM HUNT, PAWEL OSTASZEWSKI, MAX BEILBY, AL ORTIZ, NELLEKE BAK, KATHRINE AND PATRICK TOBIN, GUY MADISON, AND GARY G HELLMANN! A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, JIM FRANK, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, IAN GILLIGAN, SERGIU CODREANU, LUIS CAYETANO, TOM VANEGDOM, CURTIS DIXON, BENEDIKT MUELLER, VEGA GIDEY, AND NIRUBAN BALACHANDRAN! AND TO MY EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS, MICHAL RUSIECKI, ROSEY, JAMES PRATT, AND MATTHEW LAVENDER!

Our first segment features an interview with Chris Bail, a researcher who runs the Polarization Lab at Duke University. This week, Chris's new book will hit book shelves. It's called Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing. The second is a conversation with https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivianlachang/ (Vivian Chang), a civic engagement manager for the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA), about steps her organization is taking to confront disinformation and harassment in the communities it works with, including working with the https://www.protocol.com/election-day-2020-misinfomation-disinformation (Disinfo Defense League), a coalition that trains civic groups to tackle the growing problem of misinformation and disinformation.   The last interview in this episode is with Kieran Leavitt, an Edmonton-based political reporter for the Toronto Star. Kieran has been covering Facebook's relationship to the Canadian government. This week, Facebook executives testified in Parliament, and we got to catch up with Kieran about what happened.