Sunbelt XXXI International Network for Social Network ... - INSNA

Building Political Echo Chambers: How Ideology Leads To Asymmetries In Networks Of Political CommunicationBoutyline, Andrei; Willer, RobbPolicy NetworksHomophily, Ideology, Political Networks, Twitter NetworksSAT.AM2Fifty years of research in political psychology have documented systematic differences in the cognitive styles of actors at different points in the politicalspectrum (Jost et al, 2003). Political extremes differ from both the political center and from each other in their tolerance for ambiguity, openness toexperience, and other aspects of “mental rigidity.” This research reveals two tendencies: individuals on the extremes tend to be more rigid than those in themiddle, and those on the right tend to be more rigid than those on the left. We propose that these differences extend to the processes political actors use toform homophilous and heterophilous ties. Because those high in mental rigidity should be more sensitive to dissenting views, we predict that the aboverelationships between political ideology and mental rigidity will in turn lead to different levels of homophily and heterophily for liberals, conservatives andmoderates. As a consequence, we expect the social networks that underlie political action to systematically differ in density and closedness between differentpoints in the political spectrum. We test these predictions by examining the large‐N Twitter communication networks formed around four distinct kinds ofactors: Senators, Congressmen, national news sources, and major think tanks. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for theconstruction and stabilization of political opinion.