Nick Wuestenenk

There has been much debate about how cultural differences between ethnic groups may affect the cohesion of multicultural societies. Still, we know little about the extent to which cultural differences between groups also materialize into behavioral differences, especially in online settings. To study this, we conducted an experiment in which second-generation Moroccan and Turkish Dutch participants first indicated their personal opinion on sexual liberalism, and then participated in discussions on this topic on an online platform. On the discussion platform, participants were randomly assigned to either a progressive, conservative or mixed online discussion. Overall, we found that the convergence between personal opinions and online expressions was stronger for progressive than for conservative participants. Additionally, conservatives (but not progressives) were less likely to express their personal opinions, and more likely to deviate from their personal opinions, when they were exposed to an incongruent versus congruent online environment.

Despite much attention for group polarization in online environments, little is known about how group membership affects online behavior. We designed an online platform where ethnic minority and majority users in the Netherlands participated in discussions about controversial topics (homosexuality and abortion). Participants were randomly assigned to either progressive, conservative, or mixed discussions on these topics, which were ostensibly held among ethnic minority or majority users. We find that when ethnic minority users are exposed to discussions among the ethnic majority (i.e., outgroup) with which they disagree, they are less likely to express their opinions and more likely to deviate from their personal opinions. Among ethnic majority users, we find the opposite: when confronted with a discussion among the ethnic minority with which they disagree, they are more likely to voice their opinion and less likely to deviate from their personal opinions. This shows that group membership can affect online polarization.