Date of Award
2023
Degree Type
Restricted to Claremont Colleges Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Psychology, MA
Program
School of Social Science, Politics, and Evaluation
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair
Michael Hogg
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Eusebio Alvaro
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2023 Amelia L Rodriguez
Keywords
identity confirmation, Internet, politics, uncertain-identity theory
Subject Categories
Social Psychology
Abstract
The global expansion of the Internet and social media has led to not only interconnectedness, but also division as people with different worldviews inhabit identity echo chambers with like-minded others and are empowered to clash with those who have different worldviews. The research conducted in this study aimed to determine whether the easy access to confirming information provided by the Internet satisfies the basic human motivation to confirm rather than challenge one’s attitudes, values, and identity. Building on uncertainty-identity theory and research related to group identity and Internet communication, this study hypothesized that people who are uncertain about their identity are more likely to use the Internet to confirm their beliefs when it comes to political identity. Participants were 237 American adults (recruited using MTurk) who completed a 14-page questionnaire. The study adopted a 2x2 design with two independent variables: political identity and self-uncertainty. The dependent variable was the variety of politically leaning webpage links selected from those provided in the questionnaire. Self-uncertainty was found to affect variety of link selection such that participants in the high self-uncertainty condition selected more weblinks that were Democrat-leaning. Additionally, irrespective of political party affiliation, participants were found to self-report that they chose more Republican-leaning weblinks.
ISBN
9798342763240
Recommended Citation
Rodriguez, Amelia Lee. (2023). Political Echo Chambers: The Internet Facilitates Identity Confirmation. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 878. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/878.
