Misunderstood Differences: Media, Perception, and Out-Group Animosity in Thailand

Chonnakan Rittinon, Boontida Sa-ngimnet, Suparit Suwanik, Tanisa Tawichsri and Thiti Tosborvorn

No 194, PIER Discussion Papers from Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: In high-conflict, politically divided, and democratically fragile environments like Thailand, affective polarization and social distrust can undermine the foundations of a health democracy and hinder economic development. We conducted an original survey in 2021 (N = 2,016) during intense political turmoil, uncovering deep out-group animosity between political camps. The cleavages are particularly prominent, revealing distrust and clashes in social values between generations. Our findings indicate that perceived, rather than actual, ideological differences significantly drive out-group animosity. Individuals with extreme political identities who get news from one-sided media outlets that align with their political beliefs—i.e., echo chambers—tend to exaggerate polarization and exhibit greater negative affect and distrust toward the opposite group. Our results show that out-group animosity and the impact of perceived differences are particularly strong in the political domain and could significantly affect the policymaking process.

Keywords: Perceived polarization; Out-group animosity; Media bias; Echo chamber (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D74 P48 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2022-12, Revised 2024-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pol and nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.pier.or.th/files/dp/pier_dp_194.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pui:dpaper:194

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://www.pier.or.th/en/dp/194/

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in PIER Discussion Papers from Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().