Deep Dive

What is replacement theory?

19 May, 2022

Roughly three in ten Americans are at least somewhat concerned about the core principle of this theory — that “there is a group of people in this country who are trying to replace native-born Americans with immigrants who agree with their political views.”

~ 5 minutes read


News

Elon Musk’s bid for Twitter & the future of the platform

14 Apr, 2022

The divide: Some celebrate Musk’s potential purchase as a victory for free speech, and others mourn it as a loss in the fight against misinformation.

Why we see it differently: We disagree about whether certain ideas should be moderated on social media because we ultimately disagree about what ideas should be considered legitimate, and which should be deemed dangerous.

~ 5 minutes read


Deep Dive

Inflation: Who’s to blame?

12 Apr, 2022

The bottom line: With so many theories about what is causing inflation, we often focus on the ones that make the most sense to us given our other concerns and priorities. It’s important to be aware of our biases, because they can cloud our ability to consider other causes and ultimately identify effective solutions.

~ 5 minutes read


News

Symbolism in speech: Grooming

08 Apr, 2022

While words have strict dictionary definitions, they often take on additional symbolic meanings in everyday use, specific to certain contexts or cultures. When one of these symbolically-charged words becomes central to political discourse, the conversation becomes ripe for “talking past” each other.

~ 9 minutes read


Idea

WEB EVENT — Meet the Narratives Project: Fixing Discourse w/ Political Mindfulness

07 Apr, 2022

On Tuesday, April 26, at 12 PM ET, the Narratives Project will be hosting a Twitter Space! We will discuss and answer questions about who we are, what we do, and why we do it.

 

Sign up for a reminder when the event is about to start here.

 

The event is a part of the America Talks: National Week of Conversation hosted by the ListenFirst coalition. Check out events being put on by other partner organizations here.

~ 1 minute read


Idea

Why dividing opinions into dichotomies is useful, but insufficient

06 Apr, 2022

The bottom line: Although presenting only two sides of a story is an incomplete oversimplification, it’s useful for understanding how reasonable people can disagree.

~ 4 minutes read


News

Perspectives on the Keystone XL pipeline and rising gas prices

01 Apr, 2022

The bottom line: We’re more likely to believe information that confirms our existing worldview and dismiss information that doesn’t, so different details about the Keystone XL pipeline stick out to different people.

~ 3 minutes read


News

Why can’t we agree about why gas prices are so high?

31 Mar, 2022

As news pundits yell amongst themselves about who’s to blame, we took a look at what Twitter users are talking about when it comes to gas prices. Below, you’ll find a summary of the 100 most retweeted tweets (representing the tweets people relate to the most) mentioning “gas,” “oil,” or “petroleum” in the past 90 days.

Many of the tweets we looked at weren’t partisan, so we broke it down by theme instead.

~ 5 minutes read


News

Ideas about violence in the wake of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock

28 Mar, 2022

Photo: Myung Chun / Los Angeles Times

The bottom line: Our ideas about when violence is acceptable and what counts as violence in the first place affect whether we see Smith, Rock, or both as the aggressor.

~ 4 minutes read


News

Perspectives on Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings: Days 2-4

24 Mar, 2022

Photo: Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

The bottom line: Our brains are primed to pay attention to and remember information that confirms our worldview going into Judge Jackson’s hearings, and instinctively dismiss information that contradicts it.

~ 6 minutes read


News

Why we see Florida’s Parental Rights in Education/“Don’t Say Gay” bill so differently

23 Mar, 2022

Photo: Irfan Khan - Getty Images

The bottom line: Views and coverage of the bill vary because we have different beliefs around what constitutes appropriate classroom conversation for young students. We continue to talk about this bill differently because of distinct coverage by different news sources that confirm our point of view, whichever it is.

~ 8 minutes read


News

Reactions to Ketanji Brown Jackson’s first day of SCOTUS confirmation hearings

21 Mar, 2022

Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The bottom line: The divide on Supreme court nominees emerges because we want the next Supreme Court justice to reflect our values and beliefs, but our values and beliefs vary from person-to-person.

~ 5 minutes read