Informational ecosystems partially explain differences in socioenvironmental conceptual associations between U.S. American racial groups
Abstract Social groups represent a collective identity defined by a distinct consensus of concepts (e.g., ideas, values, and goals) whose structural relationship varies between groups. Here we set out to measure how a set of inter-concept semantic associations, comprising what we refer to as a conce...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Communications Psychology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-025-00186-w |
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| _version_ | 1832585412486365184 |
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| author | Roberto Vargas Timothy Verstynen |
| author_facet | Roberto Vargas Timothy Verstynen |
| author_sort | Roberto Vargas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Social groups represent a collective identity defined by a distinct consensus of concepts (e.g., ideas, values, and goals) whose structural relationship varies between groups. Here we set out to measure how a set of inter-concept semantic associations, comprising what we refer to as a concept graph, covaries between established social groups, based on racial identity, and how this effect is mediated by information ecosystems, contextualized as news sources. Group differences among racial identity (278 Black and 294 white Americans) and informational ecosystems (Left- and Right- leaning news sources) are present in subjective judgments of how the meaning of concepts such as healthcare, police, and voting relate to each other. These racial group differences in concept graphs were partially mediated by the bias of news sources that individuals get their information from. This supports the idea of groups being defined by common conceptual semantic relationships that partially arise from shared information ecosystems. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-32bc5d7f0a1c4789ab013e2c31a287e6 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2731-9121 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Psychology |
| spelling | doaj-art-32bc5d7f0a1c4789ab013e2c31a287e62025-01-26T12:51:03ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Psychology2731-91212025-01-01311910.1038/s44271-025-00186-wInformational ecosystems partially explain differences in socioenvironmental conceptual associations between U.S. American racial groupsRoberto Vargas0Timothy Verstynen1Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon UniversityDepartment of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon UniversityAbstract Social groups represent a collective identity defined by a distinct consensus of concepts (e.g., ideas, values, and goals) whose structural relationship varies between groups. Here we set out to measure how a set of inter-concept semantic associations, comprising what we refer to as a concept graph, covaries between established social groups, based on racial identity, and how this effect is mediated by information ecosystems, contextualized as news sources. Group differences among racial identity (278 Black and 294 white Americans) and informational ecosystems (Left- and Right- leaning news sources) are present in subjective judgments of how the meaning of concepts such as healthcare, police, and voting relate to each other. These racial group differences in concept graphs were partially mediated by the bias of news sources that individuals get their information from. This supports the idea of groups being defined by common conceptual semantic relationships that partially arise from shared information ecosystems.https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-025-00186-w |
| spellingShingle | Roberto Vargas Timothy Verstynen Informational ecosystems partially explain differences in socioenvironmental conceptual associations between U.S. American racial groups Communications Psychology |
| title | Informational ecosystems partially explain differences in socioenvironmental conceptual associations between U.S. American racial groups |
| title_full | Informational ecosystems partially explain differences in socioenvironmental conceptual associations between U.S. American racial groups |
| title_fullStr | Informational ecosystems partially explain differences in socioenvironmental conceptual associations between U.S. American racial groups |
| title_full_unstemmed | Informational ecosystems partially explain differences in socioenvironmental conceptual associations between U.S. American racial groups |
| title_short | Informational ecosystems partially explain differences in socioenvironmental conceptual associations between U.S. American racial groups |
| title_sort | informational ecosystems partially explain differences in socioenvironmental conceptual associations between u s american racial groups |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-025-00186-w |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT robertovargas informationalecosystemspartiallyexplaindifferencesinsocioenvironmentalconceptualassociationsbetweenusamericanracialgroups AT timothyverstynen informationalecosystemspartiallyexplaindifferencesinsocioenvironmentalconceptualassociationsbetweenusamericanracialgroups |