A performative network theory of attitudes

Bibliographic Data

ID19192035
AuthorsMichael Quayle (0000-0002-7497-0566, corresponding author)
Year2020
Publication date2020-03-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypePREPRINT
PublisherCenter for Open Science (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.31234/osf.io/mh4z8
OpenAlexW4238454640
LanguageEN
Citations received8

In this paper I propose a network theory of attitudes where attitude agreements and disagreements forge a multilayer network structure that simultaneously binds people into groups (via attitudes) and attitudes into clusters (via people who share them). This theory proposes that people have a range of possible attitudes (like cards in a hand) but these only become meaningful when expressed (like a card played). Attitudes are expressed with sensitivity to their potential audiences and are socially performative: when we express attitudes, or respond to those expressed by others, we tell people who we are, what groups we might belong to and what to think of us. Agreement and disagreement can be modelled as a bipartite network that provides a psychological basis for perceived ingroup similarity and outgroup difference and, more abstractly, group identity. Opinion-based groups and group-related opinions are therefore co-emergent dynamic phenomena. Dynamic fixing occurs when particular attitudes become associated with specific social identities. The theory provides a framework for understanding identity ecosystems in which social group structure and attitudes are co-constituted. The theory describes how attitude change is also identity change. This has broad relevance across disciplines and applications concerned with social influence and attitude change

Aesthetics · Collective identity · Epistemology · Ingroups and outgroups · Outgroup · Performative utterance · Political science · Social group · Social identity theory · Social media · Sociology · World Wide Web · Complex Network Analysis Techniques · Computer Science · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology

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