January 6 marked the one-year anniversary of the Capitol Riots and new research from the USC Center for Public Relations shows the deep political divide that triggered that unprecedented event has not narrowed. And 84% of Americans don’t think it will improve anytime soon.
In today’s world, polarization is a complex, multi-dimensional phenomenon and the forces that spread it have made the discord more toxic and more permanent. Polarization is no longer just the result of disagreements. It’s the cause of them. It ruins relationships, disrupts business and, at its worst, incites violence. Even the most benign topics, like wearing a mask or displaying a flag, have become personally and politically charged in our polarized society.
Thoughtful debate about serious issues is central to our democracy. But solving real problems is impossible when every issue is viewed through a distorted lens that is often informed by partisan media and political strategists, who create their own facts to further their own power.
For CCOs, polarization poses a unique challenge and opportunity. When Americans are frustrated with their government, they look elsewhere for answers -- often to companies who share their values and are willing to speak up about the issues that matter to them. Numerous public opinion surveys have shown that activists, employees, and consumers increasingly expect companies, brands and executives to weigh in on important topics. But when these expectations collide with our culture of division, the marketplace of ideas becomes a potential minefield.
To navigate this uncharted territory, CCOs need a reliable roadmap to help them assess the risks and rewards they will encounter. That’s why we’ve spent the last year creating a new tool to help them determine the impact of taking stands on controversial topics that are relevant to their customers, employees, and shareholders.
The USC Polarization Index is the first-ever data science-based index to track national political division by measuring social media conversations. Developed in collaboration Golin and Zignal Labs, the PI mathematically calculates the overall degree of discord in America, by tracking online engagement, political bias and media reliability across 450 media outlets. Zignal’s proprietary algorithm uses AI to analyze more than 60 million interactions on social media related to ten of the most controversial issues.
Highlights
- Polarization levels remained steady over the past year, despite Biden’s pleas for unity. The overall PI score has dropped only slightly (from 85.1 to 82.5).
- In the past twelve months, there was stronger engagement on the left on eight of the ten issues, but engagement on the right drove the two most polarized topics.
- Immigration is the most polarized issue in 2021, largely due to increased shares from less reliable, right-leaning sources.
- Policing policy ranks as the second most polarized topic analyzed. Also due to increased engagement with less reliable, right-leaning sources.
- Racial equity and gun legislation are the next most polarizing issues, driven roughly equally by both the right and the left, which means they are likely to remain divisive for the foreseeable future, with potential for increased volatility.
- Conversation around COVID-19 vaccines is increasingly polarized -- and may be nearing dangerous levels of polarization.
- Engagement surrounding voting integrity shifted from the right during the 2020 presidential election to the left in the wake of new voting laws in Georgia.
- Issues that dominated the dialogue during the previous administration, like climate change, healthcare, and minimum wage, have become somewhat less contentious in the past year
For more detail, download the 25-page report at https://thepolarizationindex.com
To help make our future research more valuable to you, you can also participate in a brief USC survey that explores how Polarization is affecting corporate communicators around the globe, at annenberg.usc.edu/gcs