Segregation and polarization in urban areas
Social behaviours emerge from the exchange of information among individuals—constrained by and reciprocally influencing the structure of information flows. The Internet radically transformed communication by democratizing broadcast capabilities and enabling easy and borderless formation of new acqua...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Royal Society Open Science
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130264 |
| _version_ | 1824457851390656512 |
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| author | Morales, Alfredo J. Dong, Xiaowen Bar-Yam, Yaneer Pentland, Alex |
| author2 | MIT Connection Science (Research institute) |
| author_facet | MIT Connection Science (Research institute) Morales, Alfredo J. Dong, Xiaowen Bar-Yam, Yaneer Pentland, Alex |
| author_sort | Morales, Alfredo J. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Social behaviours emerge from the exchange of information among individuals—constrained by and reciprocally influencing the structure of information flows. The Internet radically transformed communication by democratizing broadcast capabilities and enabling easy and borderless formation of new acquaintances. However, actual information flows are heterogeneous and confined to self-organized echo-chambers. Of central importance to the future of society is understanding how existing physical segregation affects online social fragmentation. Here, we show that the virtual space is a reflection of the geographical space where physical interactions and proximity-based social learning are the main transmitters of ideas. We show that online interactions are segregated by income just as physical interactions are, and that physical separation reflects polarized behaviours beyond culture or politics. Our analysis is consistent with theoretical concepts suggesting polarization is associated with social exposure that reinforces within-group homogenization and between-group differentiation, and they together promote social fragmentation in mirrored physical and virtual spaces. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:05:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/130264 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-19T04:16:34Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Royal Society Open Science |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1302642025-02-06T18:53:03Z Segregation and polarization in urban areas Morales, Alfredo J. Dong, Xiaowen Bar-Yam, Yaneer Pentland, Alex MIT Connection Science (Research institute) Social behaviours emerge from the exchange of information among individuals—constrained by and reciprocally influencing the structure of information flows. The Internet radically transformed communication by democratizing broadcast capabilities and enabling easy and borderless formation of new acquaintances. However, actual information flows are heterogeneous and confined to self-organized echo-chambers. Of central importance to the future of society is understanding how existing physical segregation affects online social fragmentation. Here, we show that the virtual space is a reflection of the geographical space where physical interactions and proximity-based social learning are the main transmitters of ideas. We show that online interactions are segregated by income just as physical interactions are, and that physical separation reflects polarized behaviours beyond culture or politics. Our analysis is consistent with theoretical concepts suggesting polarization is associated with social exposure that reinforces within-group homogenization and between-group differentiation, and they together promote social fragmentation in mirrored physical and virtual spaces. 2021-03-29T20:15:08Z 2021-03-29T20:15:08Z 2019-10-23 Article https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130264 Morales, A. J., Dong, X., Bar-Yam, Y., & ‘Sandy’Pentland, A. (2019). Segregation and polarization in urban areas. Royal Society Open Science, 6(10), 190573. en Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ application/pdf Royal Society Open Science |
| spellingShingle | Morales, Alfredo J. Dong, Xiaowen Bar-Yam, Yaneer Pentland, Alex Segregation and polarization in urban areas |
| title | Segregation and polarization in urban areas |
| title_full | Segregation and polarization in urban areas |
| title_fullStr | Segregation and polarization in urban areas |
| title_full_unstemmed | Segregation and polarization in urban areas |
| title_short | Segregation and polarization in urban areas |
| title_sort | segregation and polarization in urban areas |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130264 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT moralesalfredoj segregationandpolarizationinurbanareas AT dongxiaowen segregationandpolarizationinurbanareas AT baryamyaneer segregationandpolarizationinurbanareas AT pentlandalex segregationandpolarizationinurbanareas |