Polarisation, Trust and Social Cohesion. What do you think is the biggest challenge to address in this area? by Elliot Payne

The strength of confirmation bias, people can easily find a lot of 'evidence' online to support what they already think. (And add fuel to the fire!)

2025-09-29 14:06:59 UTC

Trump and the fall of US democracy

2025-09-29 14:22:04 UTC

2025-09-29 14:26:17 UTC

Inequality, especially wealth/economic inequality, creating fertile ground for more extreme views

Post-truth

2025-09-29 14:31:01 UTC

Trust in evidence, the rise of misinformation and it's influence of global challenges e.g. climate change

fascism

2025-09-29 14:59:09 UTC

2025-09-29 15:08:39 UTC

how do we get true conversation back? we have lost the art of listening and understanding. Bring back grey areas!

Language and democracy

2025-09-29 15:11:11 UTC

Trust in public institutions is partly undermined by the disconnect between the the complex bureaucratic language used to express positive intentions of the institutions and the language used by the general public.

We need to educate school age children about misinformation, echo chambers, fact checking, critical thought and how to hold respectful debate with people we don't agree with.

2025-09-29 15:16:08 UTC

Communication

2025-09-29 15:19:04 UTC

to prevent polarisation through a better understanding of different perspectives

Use human stories as a way to address these challenges - people can be quick to other people with different views.

2025-09-29 15:21:28 UTC

2025-09-29 15:29:33 UTC

ensure that everybody in society feels listened to and heard

Education - misinformation

2025-09-29 15:38:09 UTC

How polarisation results in narrowing and 'safe' decisions

2025-10-28 06:13:11 UTC

When there is then less capacity for discomfort or fear of the wider range of views, eg the cultural sector declining to platform pro-Palestinian voices for fear of polarisation instead of fearing the pretence of 'neutrality'