Logo
Munich Personal RePEc Archive

When do populations polarize? An explanation

Benoît, Jean-Pierre and Dubra, Juan (2018): When do populations polarize? An explanation.

[thumbnail of MPRA_paper_86173.pdf]
Preview
PDF
MPRA_paper_86173.pdf

Download (372kB) | Preview

Abstract

Numerous experiments demonstrate attitude polarization. For instance, Lord, Ross & Lepper presented subjects with the same mixed evidence on the deterrent effect of the death penalty. Both believers and skeptics of its deterrent effect became more convinced of their views; that is, the population polarized. However, not all experiments find this attitude polarization. We propose a theory of rational updating that accounts for both the positive and negative experimental findings. This is in contrast to existing theories, which predict either too much or too little polarization.

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact us: mpra@ub.uni-muenchen.de

This repository has been built using EPrints software.

MPRA is a RePEc service hosted by Logo of the University Library LMU Munich.