In recent years, social media has increasingly become an important platform for competitive campaigns, especially during political elections. It remains elusive how  public discourse is driven by the intricate interplay between identity politics and dueling campaign efforts . Here we show that the scope of identity with which people feel resonated is key determinant of socio-cognitive biases in forming polarized and segregated network structure, also known as echo chambers. We also find that winning majority support in public discourse is determined not solely by whose voice is louder but also more subtly by the divergence of ideological positioning between opposing campaigns. Further integrating our mechanistic model with the Twitter discourse data from the presidential debate in the 2016 election reveals the combined effects of absorbing wavering undecided individuals and increasing campaign effort on the unprecedented rise and fall of support rates to respective presidential candidates .
In recent years, social media has increasingly become an important platform for political campaigns, especially elections. It remains elusive how exactly public discourse is driven by the intricate interplay between individual socio-cognitive biases, dueling campaign efforts , and social media platforms. We examine this complex socio-political process by integrating observed retweet networks from the 2016 political networks with an agent-based model of political opinion formation and network structure. Here we show that the range of political viewpoints individuals are willing to consider is a key determinant in the formation of polarized networks and the emergence of echo chambers. We also find that winning majority support in public discourse is determined by both the effort exerted by campaigns and the relative ideological positioning of opposing campaigns. Our results demonstrate how public discourse and political polarization can be modeled as an interactive process of shifting individual opinions, evolving social networks, and political campaigns .
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competitive
political
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during political
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exactly
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identity politics and
individual socio-cognitive biases,
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, and social media platforms. We examine this complex socio-political process by integrating observed retweet networks from the 2016 political networks with an agent-based model of political opinion formation and network structure.
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scope of identity with which people feel resonated is key determinant of socio-cognitive biases in forming polarized and segregated network structure, also known as
range of political viewpoints individuals are willing to consider is a key determinant in the formation of polarized networks and the emergence of
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not solely by whose voice is louder but also more subtly by the divergence of ideological positioning between
by both the effort exerted by campaigns and the relative ideological positioning of
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Further integrating our mechanistic model with the Twitter discourse data from the presidential debate in the 2016 election reveals the combined effects of absorbing wavering undecided individuals and increasing campaign effort on the unprecedented rise and fall of support rates to respective presidential candidates
Our results demonstrate how public discourse and political polarization can be modeled as an interactive process of shifting individual opinions, evolving social networks, and political campaigns