Democratic Attitudes and Social Media Solutions
Anti-democratic attitudes, support for political violence, and partisan animosity threaten the health and stability of American democracy. To address these issues, the Strengthening Democracy Challenge crowdsourced interventions from teams of academics, practitioners, and industry experts, helping shed light on important but overlooked solutions. Out of a total of 252 interventions, 25 of the most promising interventions were selected with the help of a panel of experts. The Strengthening Democracy Challenge will now empirically evaluate those 25 interventions in a large online experiment of 32,000 Americans to advance understanding of what interventions reduce anti-democratic attitudes, support for partisan violence, and partisan animosity.
The Strengthening Democracy Challenge team comprises political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists from Stanford, MIT, Northwestern, and Columbia, and is supported by the Civic Health Project, a nonprofit that funds promising research and practice to bridge partisan divides.
Together, they will conduct a durability test to see whether the interventions have positive effects that last. The lab will explore multiple avenues to social impact, beginning by partnering with several bridging organizations to implement crowdsourced interventions. Recognizing the role of social media in shaping national conversations, the lab will also examine opportunities to shift social media practices and platforms. The team seeks to understand the relative efficacy of different solutions in reducing anti-democratic attitudes, support for partisan violence, and partisan animosity and increase the use of the most effective interventions.
Partners:
- Jan Voelkel, Stanford University (@jgvoelkel)
- Michael N Stagnaro, MIT and Stanford University
- James Chu, Columbia University (@jchu1225)
- Joe Mernyk, Stanford University
- Chrystal Redekopp, Stanford University
- Sophia Pink, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania
- Robb Willer, Stanford University (@RobbWiller)
- James Druckman, Northwestern University
- David Rand, MIT (@DG_Rand)
- Kristin Hansen, Civic Health Project (@kristinjhansen)
- Rob Romero, Civic Health Project
For more information, please contact:
Chrystal Redekopp at redekopp@stanford.edu
https://www.strengtheningdemocracychallenge.org/
Related:
- Washington Post op-ed, 'Here’s what persuades Americans to support democracy over party' by Robb Willer and Jan Voelkel.
- The results of the Strengthening Democracy Challenge as seen on C-Span, Fox News, NPR, Fast Company, the Stanford Report, and Morning Joe.