The polarization of modern society is undoubtedly of growing concern.  The apparent partisanship of outlets is often blamed for this polarization, but a new study from Princeton suggests that a fundamental lack of trust in the media may also be playing a part.

Participants in the research were asked to change the homepage on their browser to either Fox News, designated as conservative in orientation, or the Huffington Post, which was designated as liberal.  The volunteers had data collected on their browsing habits as well as their posts on Twitter.

They were then measured for their trust in the media, with the results showing a clear decline after a few months, with this decline then enduring throughout the following year.  Interestingly, however, this shift didn’t translate into a change in political attitudes or behaviors.  The researchers believe the results highlight how our skepticism of the media can grow when we’re exposed to news media for prolonged periods.

“Past studies have shown links between exposure to partisan news and polarization, but the driver behind this has been up for debate,” the researchers say. “Our work adds a piece to this puzzle, showing that it’s difficult for people to be persuaded by competing media outlets during an election campaign. That said, longer time spent on these sites does lead to a growing distrust in the news.” 

News habits

The volunteers were first asked about things like the news they consumed, their voting preferences, their support for the then President Trump, and their attitudes towards various domestic and foreign policy issues.

The researchers then implemented a nudge-like approach with the volunteers asked to change their homepage to either the HuffPost or Fox News, with a control group not changing their homepage at all.

The results showed that those with the HuffPost homepage visited one extra page on the website per day, spending around 50 seconds doing so.  Those in the Fox News group visited four more pages per day, spending a couple of minutes in doing so.

Not only was this considerably more news consumption than prior to the nudge, the subjects were also better able to recall various recent political events and even to distinguish them from fabricated events than those in the control group.  This was true regardless of which news site they were looking at.

“Just as we were able to boost the partisan composition of people’s news diets, social platforms, public media, and other intermediaries can draw on our findings to promote authoritative, nonpartisan sources of information. This could be part of the solution as society looks for ways to reverse our downward spiral of distrust,” the researchers conclude.