{"pk":49415,"title":"Scroll-Time and Echo-Chambers: Effect of Mass Media on Ingroup Bias and Polarization","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Information disseminated through mass-media has been known to significantly influence behaviors such as voting (Iyengar & Kinder, 1987), brand preferences (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981), and public opinion (McCombs & Shaw, 1972). More specifically, the way information is framed and presented in mass media (for instance through \"breaking news\" and \"sensational headlines\") can reinforce existing beliefs and contribute to political and ideological polarization, with partisan media creating \"echo chambers\" that deepen biases (Hobolt et al., 2024). The current study leverages these insights to investigate the effects of the echo-chambered media and the time available for information consumption in an intergroup context across three experiments. Going by the minimal group paradigm, Experiment 1 employed a randomized, untimed presentation (non-echo-chamber) of news about an ingroup and an outgroup, while Experiment 2 used a blocked, untimed design (echo-chamber), and Experiment 3 a blocked, timed design (echo-chamber, doomscroll). All experiments involved two news sources with varying reliability (low and high) disseminating valanced (positive/negative) intergroup news headlines, and the participants were asked about the degree to which they believed the specific news items. Results showed that the manner of news presentation and timing moderated ingroup favoritism, with higher propensity to believe positive ingroup than positive outgroup news and vice-versa for the negative news, with the most significant bias emerging in Experiment 2 and negative news bias in Experiment 3. These findings shed light on how patterns of media consumption may influence intergroup perceptions and lead to polarization in society.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Psychology; Decision making; Group Behaviour; Social cognition; Computer-based experiment"}],"section":"Papers with Poster Presentation","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2gj94798","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Abhishek","middle_name":"","last_name":"Baba","name_suffix":"","institution":"Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur","department":""},{"first_name":"Ark","middle_name":"","last_name":"Verma","name_suffix":"","institution":"Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur","department":""},{"first_name":"Ms Anurati","middle_name":"","last_name":"Tripathi","name_suffix":"","institution":"Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2025-01-01T19:00:00+01:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/49415/galley/37377/download/"}]}