The Perception of Political Polarization and How to Fix It: Dr. Chris Bail (Author of "Breaking the Social Media Prism," Duke Professor, and Director of the Polarization Lab)(Ep. 80)

Dr. Chris Bail

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 chambers

• How vocal and extreme, social media users influence our view of political polarization

• What do you mean by "the social media prism?"

• Breaking the social media prism

• How to bring the moderates back to social media

• How future tech will shape our perception of politics

• Fake news - who shares it

• How do we fix tech in order to crack this perception?

Our Website: https://www.aimingforthemoon.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aiming4moon/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aiming4Moon

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6-TwYdfPcWV-V1JvjBXk

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.