Designing Political Information Systems Encouraging Societal Discourse

The world is filled with conflicts in which different groups are irreconcilably divided – from global discussions around climate change to municipal conflicts in communities about cycle paths or local education. The absence of discourse in communities and societies, however, threatens coexistence. Despite the potential of information systems to facilitate intergroup connectivity, they often exacerbate polarization with like-minded echo chambers. Addressing this challenge, we develop design knowledge for a class of political information systems to encourage intergroup discourse through positive interpersonal contact based on a design science research approach. We leverage video communication technology and the Contact Hypothesis Theory as kernel theory, which states that regular discourse between conflicting groups fosters understanding and tolerance. Results from a qualitative and quantitative evaluation with 22 participants indicate a confirmation of these effects, offering a path for future research to investigate how to increase discourse between groups of opposing views in societies.