Homophily and acrophily as drivers of political segregation

Amit Goldenberg (), Joseph M. Abruzzo, Zi Huang, Jonas Schöne, David Bailey, Robb Willer, Eran Halperin and James J. Gross
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Amit Goldenberg: Harvard Department of Psychology, Harvard University
Joseph M. Abruzzo: Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management
Zi Huang: Harvard University, Harvard Business School
Jonas Schöne: University of Oxford, Department of Experimental Psychology
David Bailey: Harvard University, Harvard Business School
Robb Willer: Stanford University, Department of Sociology
Eran Halperin: Hebrew University, Department of Psychology
James J. Gross: Stanford University, Department of Psychology

Nature Human Behaviour, 2023, vol. 7, issue 2, 219-230

Abstract: Abstract Political segregation is an important social problem, increasing polarization and impeding effective governance. Previous work has viewed the central driver of segregation to be political homophily, the tendency to associate with others who have similar views. Here we propose that, in addition to homophily, people’s social tie decisions are driven by political acrophily, the tendency to associate with others who have more extreme political views (rather than more moderate). We examined this using a paradigm in which participants share emotions and attitudes on political policies, observe others’ responses and choose which others to affiliate with. In four studies (N = 1,235), both liberal and conservative participants’ social tie decisions reflected the presence of acrophily. We found that participants who viewed peers who expressed more extreme views as more prototypical of their political group also tended to engage in greater acrophily. These studies identify a previously overlooked tendency in tie formation.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-022-01474-9

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