The Public Sphere Is “Too Darn Hot”: Social Identity Complexity as a Basis for Authentic Communication

A growing body of research suggests that the contemporary media environment enables motivated reasoning, which intensifies affective polarization. This is especially the case in the U.S., where elections are capital-intensive and media are largely commercially owned. From a normative perspective, th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournalism and Media Vol. 5; no. 2; pp. 688 - 701
Main Author Brundidge, Jennifer
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2024
Subjects
Authenticity
boundaries
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive bias
Communication
communicative action
Current events
Democracy
Hijacking
Literature reviews
Mass media
media systems
Motivated reasoning
Polarization
Politics
Psychology
Public sphere
Rationality
Social identity
social identity complexity
Speech
United States > US
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Summary:A growing body of research suggests that the contemporary media environment enables motivated reasoning, which intensifies affective polarization. This is especially the case in the U.S., where elections are capital-intensive and media are largely commercially owned. From a normative perspective, these commercial forces may interfere with authentic communication by hijacking the “lifeworld” and thus undermining the sincerity of our speech. From a psychological and empirical perspective, this means we are an affective public steeping in “hot cognitions” that unconsciously motivate us toward processing (mis)information in biased and distorted ways. This kind of cognitive limitation intensifies as current affairs heat up, but starts well before, as a function of media market boundaries aligning with human psychology. Through a synthetic literature review of theory and empirical research, this essay argues that “social identity complexity” may help to overcome some of the worst outcomes of motivated reasoning, pointing toward a developmental basis for more authentic communication in the public sphere.
ISSN:2673-5172
DOI:10.3390/journalmedia5020045