Political Polarization and Counter-attitudinal Information Consumption and Internalization

Abstract

Political polarization can undermine democratic governance by weakening electoral accountability through biases in voter information consumption and processing. A growing literature, primarily from high-income countries, has identified promising interventions to reduce negative affect toward out-partisans, though evidence regarding their downstream effects remains mixed. We evaluate whether these depolarizing interventions and an open-mindedness nudge that increases awareness of information-processing biases stemming from emotions or partisanship promote counter-attitudinal information consumption and internalization in a survey of nearly 2,500 participants from a nationally representative panel in Mexico, a heavily polarized context. Videos designed to correct misperceptions about out-partisans improved trust in opposition media, while those designed to foster empathy or emphasize shared identities reduced partisan polarization. Although none of the videos affected immediate counter-attitudinal news consumption, exposure to either the corrective video or the open-mindedness nudge led to greater partisan attitudinal updating when participants were exposed to a counter-attitudinal news article. This effect is due to reduced partisan perceptions of the article rather than increased factual retention of its information. These findings provide insights into the potential and limitations of scalable interventions to improve citizens’ ability to consume and process politically relevant information across partisan lines.