How do social media feed algorithms affect attitudes and behavior in an election campaign?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Guess, Andrew M.; Malhotra, Neil; Pan, Jennifer; Barbera, Pablo; Allcott, Hunt; Brown, Taylor; Crespo-Tenorio, Adriana; Dimmery, Drew; Freelon, Deen; Gentzkow, Matthew; Gonzalez-Bailon, Sandra; Kennedy, Edward; Kim, Young Mie; Lazer, David; Moehler, Devra; Nyhan, Brendan; Rivera, Carlos Velasco; Settle, Jaime; Thomas, Daniel Robert; Thorson, Emily; Tromble, Rebekah; Wilkins, Arjun; Wojcieszak, Magdalena; Xiong, Beixian; de Jonge, Chad Kiewiet; Franco, Annie; Mason, Winter; Stroud, Natalie Jomini; Tucker, Joshua A.
• 署名单位: Princeton University; Princeton University; Stanford University; Stanford University; Stanford University; University of Vienna; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; University of North Carolina School of Medicine; Stanford University; University of Pennsylvania; Carnegie Mellon University; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; Northeastern University; Dartmouth College; Syracuse University; George Washington University; George Washington University; University of California System; University of California Davis; University of Amsterdam; University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin; University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin; New York University; New York University
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-13516
• DOI: 10.1126/science.abp9364
• 发表日期: 2023-07-28
• 页码: 398-404
• 关键词: participation evidence; news; inference; exposure

摘要

We investigated the effects of Facebook's and Instagram's feed algorithms during the 2020 US election. We assigned a sample of consenting users to reverse-chronologically-ordered feeds instead of the default algorithms. Moving users out of algorithmic feeds substantially decreased the time they spent on the platforms and their activity. The chronological feed also affected exposure to content: The amount of political and untrustworthy content they saw increased on both platforms, the amount of content classified as uncivil or containing slur words they saw decreased on Facebook, and the amount of content from moderate friends and sources with ideologically mixed audiences they saw increased on Facebook. Despite these substantial changes in users' on-platform experience, the chronological feed did not significantly alter levels of issue polarization, affective polarization, political knowledge, or other key attitudes during the 3-month study period.