I introduce two related network-based approaches to modelling attitude-based groups as networks, where people are linked by the attitudes they jointly hold, and attitudes are socially connected when jointly held by people. This structure simultaneously links people into groups and attitudes into meaningful clusters. With examples from opinion-surveys, social-media, and simulations, I show how group structure emerges in this “attitude space”, and how people are located in it. First I show how survey (and other) data can be treated natively as a bipartite network, and how projections this space show (1) opinion-based groups (of people linked by jointly held attitudes) and (2) group-based opinions (linked by people who jointly hold them). I demonstrate how analysis of this bipartite network structure allows us to quantify multidimensional polarization in ANES samples, and visualize the increase in multidimensional polarization in US society over a specific time period on selected dimensions. Second, I introduce the related REsponse Item-Network (ReSIN) method that allows visualization of assymetrical attitude networks. Using toy data, I explore some implications of these models for conceptualizing polarization: 1) A group can absorb logically inconsistent attitudes. 2) Group-members can hold substantively different positions, so long as there is sufficient cross-cutting ingroup cohesion. 3) Polarization does not require extremism, and polarized configurations are possible that are not bipolar. 4) Social opinion systems are dynamic, and polarization can result from within- or between-group dynamics. 5) Individuals are located in the opinion space by the combination of attitudes they hold. Because the system is dynamic, individuals’ positions in the identity-space can change even if their attitudes do not. 6) Specific attitudes can become progressively more identity-relevant as the system polarizes. I discuss the value of the framework for understanding identity ecosystems in which social group structure and attitudes are co-constituted; and the theoretical consequence that attitude change is usually also identity change.

Le séminaire aura lieu dans la salle de réunion du CeSCuP ainsi qu’en ligne, via ce lien : https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3a34a093c9eea043c0a6dd9b5cd4cdd2a8%40thread.tacv2/1716901129271?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2230a5145e-75bd-4212-bb02-8ff9c0ea4ae9%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22e5543702-1628-4726-b5c4-a1eac25bde08%22%7d