Australians avoiding tough conversations amid polarisation fears

Speaking at the recent launch of the Scanlon Research Institute's 2024 Mapping Social Cohesion report, senior researcher Trish Prentice said the trend could have implications for civil discourse in Australia and people's ability to contest ideas openly and honestly.

Prentice surveyed of more than 400 Australians on their attitudes toward polarisation as part of the social cohesion study.

She said the majority of those surveyed believed Australia was more divided than united.

However, perceptions of just how united or divided Australia really is differed widely between younger and older Australians.

“The perception of division was particularly strong among older Australians,” said Prentice.

“The majority said that Australia is more divided, and that was less so amongst younger people.”

Prentice said younger Australians tended to feel there were more voices in the community and more platforms on which to express an opinion.

“[Younger] people often said, ‘It’s louder, it's more chaotic, it's more crowded, and that’s not an indication of division or unity. It’s just the nature of where we are as a society at the moment.’”

When people who believe Australia is a more divided nation were asked what the main issues causing division were, immigration topped the list.

This was followed by:

• the war in Gaza 

• the Voice to Parliament or the rights of First Nations people 

• the cost of living 

• climate change 

“When I asked people to think of the issues where Australia was united, some people really struggled to think of anything,” said Prentice.

“One of the most common responses among older people was Australia is united around its love of sport, which I thought was fun.

“Amongst young people, they said people are united around the cost-of-living crisis, which is a negative thing to be united on.”

Prentice said that when it came to changing attitudes in relation to what topic’s people were prepared to discuss in their own social circles, three trends emerged:

Entrenchment: People have a point of view they are unwilling to move from, refusing to listen to contrary positions or engage in a conversation at all.

Partisan animosity: People talk about those in another group in a hostile way or a way that shows animosity towards them.

Self-censorship: People actively avoid talking about issues in their own private social circles.

Topics avoided by people who admitted to self-censoring included gender issues, the war in Gaza, religion, politics, climate change and sexuality.

“This is happening in people’s private spheres and their family and friendship circles and their workplaces. They’re unwilling to have those conversations,” said Prentice.

“Some people are avoiding anything that they consider sensitive at all.”

Prentice said the majority of interviewees recognised the right to freedom of expression and that people were free in reality and in practice to express what they thought in the public sphere.

 “There was also a very strong commitment to public debate. People thought public debate was very important to work through issues, to progress society in order for us to have a healthy and robust democracy.”

Prentice said people nominated teachers, community organisations, charities and religious groups as the institutions they felt were contributing most to societal unity.

The 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer report categorised Australia as moderately polarised, unlike the United States, South Africa, Columbia, Spain and Sweden, which it classed as severely polarised.

However, the graphic representation of world polarisation by country revealed Australia was close to crossing the dotted line that separates it from nations “in danger of severe polarisation” which include Brazil, France, the UK, Japan, Italy, Germany the Netherlands, Mexico, and South Korea.

Prentice said polarisation was a tricky concept to measure.

“If we understand polarisation as divergence or difference, it’s a very relative term,” she said.

“If we would argue that difference of opinion is healthy and good in society and we need differences of opinion in order to move forward, then at what point does difference of opinion become division and division become polarisation?

“Where is that tipping point where it transitions from something positive to something negative for society and who is it that decides at what point we’ve reached that tipping point?”

Prentice said polarisation could be categorised in a variety of ways, including:

• ideological polarisation: the extent of difference in people’s attitudes, beliefs, or opinions
  

• affective polarisation: the sense in which people hold negative attitudes or sentiments towards those who have a different opinion from their own

• perceptions of polarisation: measurement of people’s perceptions or experiences of what they believe society is like. 

Prentice said measuring polarisation was complex, making it difficult to categorically answer the question of whether Australia is polarised.

“But I think what we can say is that the interviewees observed certain dynamics in society which are of concern,” she said.

“They are related to the way that we have public and private conversations, and if these trends hold true, which I suspect they might, then they have the potential to damage the way that we talk about issues as a society and as a nation going forward.

“I think maybe the onus comes back to us as civil society, us as government, as educators, to create spaces where conversations can happen.

“I think that’s really important.” 

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