Cornell Bowers College of Computing and Information Science

People Follow a Crowd, No Matter its Politics

Amid the clamor of political polarization and mistrust, new Cornell Tech research has found cause for optimism: When it comes to evaluating news, people tend to trust the opinions of a large group whether it’s composed of liberals or conservatives.

The study of 1,000 participants found that Democrats were reliably influenced by Republican-majority crowds and vice versa, though the researchers also found that people are inclined to disregard news that contradict their own political views.

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