This research applies a perceived affordance approach to examine the distinctive role of social media technologies in shaping (mis)perceptions of political polarization. We argue that users’ perceptions of platform affordances influence both (a) their self-participation in uncivil political discussion on social media and (b) perceptions of others’ engagement, which eventually shape their perceptions of polarization. Our analysis of US survey data found that perceptions of lower privacy and stronger network association on Facebook are related to perceptions of a higher level of uncivil discussion by other users, which in turn predicts greater perceived polarization. Perceptions of higher anonymity relate to higher self-participation in uncivil discussion, which is surprisingly associated with perceptions of reduced polarization. Our follow-up experimental study illustrated that participants with more frequent engagement in uncivil discussion, irrespective of interacting with civil or uncivil comments, showed consistently higher levels of intrapersonal reflection, which reduces perceived polarization.

中文翻译：

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社交媒体和感知的政治两极分化：感知的平台可供性、参与不文明的政治讨论以及感知的他人参与的作用

本研究采用感知可供性方法来研究社交媒体技术在塑造政治两极分化（错误）认知方面的独特作用。我们认为，用户对平台可供性的看法会影响（a）他们在社交媒体上不文明政治讨论的自我参与和（b）对他人参与的看法，这最终会影响他们对两极分化的看法。我们对美国调查数据的分析发现，Facebook 上较低的隐私性和较强的网络关联性的看法与其他用户较高水平的不文明讨论的看法有关，这反过来又预示着更大的感知两极分化。对较高匿名性的看法与对不文明讨论的较高自我参与有关，令人惊讶的是，这与减少两极分化的看法有关。我们的后续实验研究表明，更频繁地参与不文明讨论的参与者，无论与文明还是不文明评论互动，都表现出始终较高水平的个人反思，这减少了感知的两极分化。