How can we manage partisan conflict in large-scale politics discussions?

Do downvote buttons in online discussions protect communities from unruly comments, attract partisan conflict, or do they achieve both of those things?

CAT Lab worked with the 3-million subscriber r/politics discussion community on reddit to investigate the effect of downvote buttons on behavior in an online community.

• Blog post: Do Downvote Buttons Cause Unruly Online Behavior? (Jan 2018)
  • Community debriefing in r/politics
• Study materials:
  • Estimating the Effect of Reducing Downvotes in Contentious
    Discussions: Analysis Plan (October 2017)
  • Analysis code on github