The Polarization Loop: How Emotions Drive Propagation of Disinformation in Online Media—The Case of Conspiracy Theories and Extreme Right Movements in Southern Europe

Erik Bran Marino, Jesus M. Benitez-Baleato () and Ana Sofia Ribeiro
Additional contact information
Erik Bran Marino: CIDEHUS—Centro Interdisciplinar de História, Culturas e Sociedades, Universidade de Évora, Palácio do Vimioso, Largo do Marquês de Marialva, n.º 8, 7000-809 Évora, Portugal
Jesus M. Benitez-Baleato: Political Analysis Research Group (Grupo de Investigacións Políticas), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15705 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Ana Sofia Ribeiro: CIDEHUS—Centro Interdisciplinar de História, Culturas e Sociedades, Universidade de Évora, Palácio do Vimioso, Largo do Marquês de Marialva, n.º 8, 7000-809 Évora, Portugal

Social Sciences, 2024, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-24

Abstract: This paper examines the influence of emotions on political polarization, looking at online propagation of conspiracy thinking by extreme right movements in Southern Europe. Integrating insights from psychology, political science, media studies, and system theory, we propose the ‘polarization loop’, a causal mechanism explaining the cyclical relationship between extreme messages, emotional engagement, media amplification, and societal polarization. We illustrate the utility of the polarization loop observing the use of the Great Replacement Theory by extreme right movements in Italy, Portugal, and Spain. We suggest possible options to mitigate the negative effects of online polarization in democracy, including public oversight of algorithmic decission-making, involving social science and humanities in algorithmic design, and strengthening resilience of citizenship to prevent emotional overflow. We encourage interdisciplinary research where historical analysis can guide computational methods such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), using Large Language Models fine-tunned consistently with political science research. Provided the intimate nature of emotions, the focus of connected research should remain on structural patterns rather than individual behavior, making it explicit that results derived from this research cannot be applied as the base for decisions, automated or not, that may affect individuals.

Keywords: disinformation; polarization; emotions; conspiracy; artificial intelligence; natural language processing; media; digital; extreme right; Italy; Portugal; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/11/603/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/11/603/ (text/html)

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:gam:jscscx:v:13:y:2024:i:11:p:603-:d:1514299

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().