Depolarization interventions can succeed while creating unintended harms.

Evidence

What is more interesting in light of our research question, however, is the direction of the reported effects. Of the articles reporting an effect, 29 observed a negative effect (43.3%), i.e., that deliberation increased polarization, and 31 a positive effect (46.3%), i.e., that deliberation reduced polarization. Moreover, as Table 3 shows, the direction of the effect also seems to depend on the type of polarization under investigation. After all, about 41.5% of all articles on idea-based polarization show that deliberation increases polarization, whereas deliberation is reported to decrease affective polarization in 54.2% of the cases. The effect of deliberation is thus contingent on the type of polarization, and deliberation seems to be more effective at decreasing affective types of polarization than on idea-based polarization. The suggestion that having groups of citizens discuss political issues suffices to decrease the levels of polarization within the group therefore needs qualification. — Didier Caluwaerts et al., Deliberation and Polarization, 107 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

I have argued that impersonal trust permits complex developments in social organization and exchange that create distinctive opportunities for abuse. These are responded to by new social-control strategies that unfortunately share some of the same structural properties as the original developments. Therefore, similar opportunities for violation emerge and stimulate new social-control measures that contain the structural seeds of further deviance. And so on. — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 145 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

In many cases the emphasis on the cultural also helped preserve an ostensible depoliticization, which contrasts with the frank Heimatpolitik (homeland policy) of the German expellees; yet the Pieds-Noirs’ depoliticization was, perhaps, less ‘revelatory of an end to the influence of politics on their activities than of a specific structuring of their discourse’. — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 1020 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Correcting misperceptions reduces partisan animosity across at least 26 countries. — Rachel Hartman et al., Interventions to Reduce Partisan…, 39; Stacking multiple depolarization interventions does not amplify their effect on out-party warmth. — Derek E. Holliday, Yphtach Lelkes, and Sean J. Westwood, Why Depolarization Is Hard: Evaluating…, 61; Interventions effective in controlled settings may fail to produce large-scale durable polarization change. — Derek E. Holliday, Yphtach Lelkes, and Sean J. Westwood, Why Depolarization Is Hard: Evaluating…, 73 (+3 more)

Related

• Deliberation reduces affective polarization but often increases idea-based polarization. (similarity 0.84)
• Depolarization interventions produce only modest temporary effects on partisan animosity. (similarity 0.82)
• Effective depolarization interventions target thoughts, relationships, and institutions. (similarity 0.82)
• Depolarization requires deliberation framed by deliberative-democracy conditions. (similarity 0.82)
• Correcting misperceptions reduces partisan animosity across at least 26 countries. (similarity 0.81)
• Depolarization interventions produce small, decaying effects that fail to scale or shift downstream attitudes (similarity 0.80)
• Deliberation reduces polarization mainly in political science studies (similarity 0.80)
• Modest affective depolarization gains fail to shift downstream attitudes and behaviors. (similarity 0.79)
• Depolarization interventions barely raise out-party warmth and show no gains from repetition. (similarity 0.78)
• Facilitation is a decisive condition for deliberation-induced depolarization. (similarity 0.78)
• Disciplinary priors strongly predict which direction of effect gets reported. (similarity 0.78)
• Depolarization interventions work in lab settings but fall short of reversing societal polarization. (similarity 0.78)
• Deliberation depolarizes groups only when sufficient disagreement is present. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Deliberation reduces affective polarization but often increases idea-based polarization. #qualifies (0.85) — Didier Caluwaerts et al., Deliberation and Polarization, 107
• Social-control remedies reproduce the structural vulnerabilities they target. #exemplifies (0.78) — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 145
• Depoliticization can mask rather than end political influence #exemplifies (0.72) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 1020