Indonesian Muslims’ Cognitive Pattern on Social Media During Political Disagreements

The 2017 Jakarta governor election had encoura­ged polarization among Muslims, including among media social users: those who agreed and tho­se who disagreed with voting for Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama since he was prose­cuted for allegedly committing blasphemy. This study has examined the cognitive pattern amongst disputants: whet­her cognitive pattern and religiosity contribute to poli­tical disagreements or not. Participants were Indonesia’s Muslim social media users (N=300). Using multiple regres­sion analysis, the findings have demonstrated that analytical thin­king produces higher disagreement than ho­listic thinking. In addition, higher level of religiosity produces higher disagree­ment.