Polarization and social media: A systematic review and research agenda

The world of today presents a duality of phenomenal progress and persistent ills. Amid such existential contradictions, public deliberation forms one of the central pillars of a functional and progressive society. Though its relevance remains undoubted, interactions in the public sphere may often give way to misinformation, affect-driven predisposition, and homophily-based interactions, all reminiscent of polarization. While polarization remains a concern worldwide, structural changes, most notably, social media's advent and remarkable progress, have further redefined the meaning, scale, and diffusion of information. Accordingly, a tireless debate rages regarding the valence and strength of social media's influence on polarization. As an incremental means of resolving the complexity, we perform a systematic review of the extant scholarship and identify contingencies and mechanisms of social media's relationship with polarization. Further, we provide a conceptual framework, incorporating these intricacies while emphasizing the need to place this association in a broader frame. Our work contributes to theory by being one of the few reviews linking social media to polarization and providing a synthesis of contingent factors and underlying processes. We guide policy and practice by suggesting a future research framework.