Do attitudes grow more extreme when challenged? In a new working paper, @patrickpliu and I use GPT-3 to expose people to tailored arguments challenging deeply held issue positions. Across three pre-registered studies, we fail to find evidence of attitude polarization. Though canonical studies in political psychology have found evidence that individuals double down when they are confronted with counter-attitudinal information, recent work by scholars such as @aecoppock, @andyguess, @EthanVPorter, and @thomasjwood suggests this is rare.

Spanish-language disinformation spreads via WhatsApp, but its private nature makes it inherently difficult to study. Using Google Trends data, I find that WhatsApp searches predict pro-Trump swings at the DMA level, even after adjusting for political and demographic factors. Caveats: Google searches are not equivalent to downloads or usage, media markets are large geographies, and the use of aggregate-level data obscures variation within media markets.