The objectives of WP7 are categorized into the following four goals: First, to identify the correlations between how individuals perceive and navigate "difference" and "diversity" in online environments versus their offline counterparts. Second, to analyze the interaction between conformity or resistance to polarization-inducing AI algorithms online and the ways in which individuals accept or respond to algorithmic institutions and power structures offline. Third, to evaluate individual perceptions of the intervention strategies developed and introduced in WP3 and WP4. Fourth, to empirically examine how these dynamics vary according to individual socio-demographic traits (e.g., gender, age, political orientation, and digital literacy) and urban social conditions through a cross-national comparative survey across four global cities: Seoul, Chicago, London, and Amsterdam.

WP7 specifically focuses on the reinforcing process through which online algorithmic polarization intersects with and amplifies offline social polarization. Offline disparities have long been structured by gender, class, geography, and socio-economic background, with urban space itself serving as a primary field for the reflection and reproduction of these differences (Chaskin, 2001; Florida, 2017; Tilly, 2005). Contemporary AI-driven algorithms datafy and formalize these pre-existing discriminatory structures, establishing a feedback mechanism that makes online and offline polarization an inseparable, integrated phenomenon.

Accordingly, WP7 conducts a comparative analysis of the multidimensional variations in algorithmic conformity, susceptibility to polarization, and identity-driven responses across the heterogeneous urban environments of Seoul, Chicago, London, and Amsterdam. By doing so, the study seeks to elucidate how algorithmic experiences within digital platform environments manifest as distinct sensory and social practices tailored to each specific urban context.

• RQ1: How do individuals conceptualize and perceive the phenomenon of online polarization?
• RQ2: What strategies do individuals employ to navigate or negotiate encounters with "difference" within digital environments?
• RQ3: How do individuals perceive the structural issues of offline social polarization?
• RQ4: How do individuals manage or address encounters with "difference" in physical, offline settings?
• RQ5: What is the nature of the interplay between perceptions of online polarization and those of offline polarization?
• RQ6: How do behavioral and affective responses to online polarization interact or correlate with responses to offline polarization?
• RQ7: To what extent do the response patterns identified in RQ7-1 through RQ7-6 exhibit cross-national variation across the urban contexts of Seoul, Chicago, London, and Amsterdam?

WP7 will conduct independent online surveys across four global cities: Seoul, Tokyo, London, and Chicago. To ensure localized data collection expertise, we will contract an international research consultancy (e.g., Ipsos) capable of administering surveys in each respective city.The sample size for each city will be N=1,000, targeting adults between the ages of 19 and 59. Participants will be recruited using quota sampling based on age and gender to ensure demographic representativeness. To maintain linguistic and conceptual equivalence across the different regions, the survey instrument will be initially developed in English and subsequently translated into Korean and Dutch. A rigorous back-translation process will then be employed, where the translated versions are rendered back into English to verify that the content remains identical across all language versions.