In communications and psychology, polarization is the process whereby a social or political group is divided into two opposing sub-groups with fewer and fewer members of the group remaining neutral or holding an intermediate position. The term communications is used in a number of disciplines: Communications, also known as communication studies is the academic discipline which studies communication. ... Psychology (Classical Greek: psyche = soul or mind, logos = study of) is an academic and applied field involving the study of behaviour, mind and thought and, frequently the application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including problems of individuals daily lives and the treatment of mental illness. ...
When polarization occurs, there is a tendency for the opposing sides of an argument to make increasingly disagreeable statements, via the "pendulum effect". Thus, it is commonly observed in polarized groups, that judgments made after group discussion will be more extreme on a given subject than the average of individual judgments made prior to discussion. Argument may refer to: (in logic) a logical argument, that is, an attempt to prove a demonstration of the half-truth of a conclusion based on the truth of a set of premises (in mathematics) at least three different things: a parameter or independent variable that is the input to...
Regardless of whether polarization ellipses are represented using geometric parameters or Jones vectors, implicit in the parameterization is the orientation of the coordinate frame.
Polarization is principally of importance in chemistry due to the circular dichroism and "optical rotation" (circular birefringence) exhibited by optically active (chiral) molecules.
The polarization of the cosmic microwave background is being used to study the physics of the very early universe.
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