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13.07.2026
From TikTok to the Ballot Box: Gendered Grievances and Democratic Erosion in Transatlantic Perspective
Talk & Analysis with Cynthia Miller-Idriss, American University.
Monday, July 13, 2026, 19:15
d.a.i. hall, Tübingen
The internationally renowned American researcher Prof. Cynthia Miller-Idriss has been talking with 18–24 year-olds in the US, Canada, Kenya, and Jordan about what they experience online — and the findings hit close to home on both sides of the Atlantic. Her research goes beyond the familiar debate about harmful algorithms and asks something bigger: are platforms not just reflecting societal tensions, but actively creating them?
Miller-Idriss identifies three forces at work. Platforms serve up gender-charged outrage because anger drives engagement and engagement drives profit. Online trends — from „looksmaxxing“ (the obsessive optimization of one’s physical appearance, especially among young men) to rigid dating hierarchies — push young men and women toward increasingly narrow and traditional ideas of gender, deepening the divide between them. And the platforms then trap users in echo chambers that amplify everything they already feel.
The result: a trifecta of outrage, retrenchment, and isolation that doesn’t just harm gender equality — it eats away at the common ground democracies depend on. And it’s happening across very different societies at the same time. For a transatlantic institution like the d.a.i., the question is urgent: if young people on both sides of the Atlantic are being shaped by the same algorithms, what does that mean for our shared democratic values?
Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a leading scholar in the study of extremism, radicalization, and polarization, whose work bridges academic research and practical interventions. As the director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University, her research informs policy, media, and community-based strategies to address pressing global challenges. Her publications and contributions offer critical insights into understanding and preventing the dynamics of hate and violence.
The lecture will be held in Englisch.
A cooperation between d.a.i., College of Fellows and the Institute for Research on Far Right Extremism (IRex) of the University of Tübingen
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