Discussion with likeminded peers pushes group attitudes further in their initial direction

Evidence

Finally, specific unfavorable impressions of an outgroup might not only be a common topic of discussion with other ingroup members; they could become even more extreme after the discussion. As succinctly summarized by Isenberg (1986), “on decisions in which group members have, on the average, a moderate proclivity in a given direction, group discussion results in a more extreme average proclivity in the same direction” (p. 1141), a process known as group polarization. Indeed, Myers and Bishop (1970) found that White participants’ attitudes towards Blacks polarized after discussion when they had talked about their attitudes with likeminded people (i.e., with people who were either low or high in prejudice). — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2369

Finally, specific unfavorable impressions of an outgroup might not only be a common topic of discussion with other ingroup members; they could become even more extreme after the discussion. As succinctly summarized by Isenberg (1986), “on decisions in which group members have, on the average, a moderate proclivity in a given direction, group discussion results in a more extreme average proclivity in the same direction” (p. 1141), a process known as group polarization. Indeed, Myers and Bishop (1970) found that White participants’ attitudes towards Blacks polarized after discussion when they had talked about their attitudes with likeminded people (i.e., with people who were either low or high in prejudice). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2369

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Sunstein’s work on group polarization and how information cascades amplify within homogeneous groups — also relevant to ideological echo chambers online. — connects to: Deliberation among like-minded peers pushes groups to more extreme positions. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 437; Mediated rather than face-to-face deliberation tends to polarize groups — Didier Caluwaerts et al., Deliberation and Polarization: A…, 123
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 2369; , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2369