The effects of Facebook and Instagram on the 2020 election: A deactivation experiment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Allcott, Hunt; Gentzkow, Matthew; Mason, Winter; Wilkins, Arjun; Barbera, Pablo; Brown, Taylor; Cisneros, Juan Carlos; Crespo-Tenorio, Adriana; Dimmery, Drew; Freelon, Deen; Gonzalez-Bailon, Sandra; Guess, Andrew M.; Kim, Young Mie; Lazer, David; Malhotra, Neil; Moehler, Devra; Nair-Desai, Sameer; Barj, Houda Nait El; Nyhan, Brendan; de Queiroz, Ana Carolina Paixao; Pan, Jennifer; Settle, Jaime; Thorson, Emily; Tromble, Rebekah; Rivera, Carlos Velasco; Wittenbrink, Benjamin; Wojcieszak, Magdalena; Zahedian, Saam; Franco, Annie; de Jonge, Chad Kiewiet; Stroud, Natalie Jomini; Tucker, Joshua A.
• 署名单位: Stanford University; Hertie School; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; University of Pennsylvania; Princeton University; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; Northeastern University; Stanford University; Dartmouth College; Stanford University; 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; New York University; New York University
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-10021
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2321584121
• 发表日期: 2024-05-21
• 关键词: social media; political news; twitter

摘要

We study the effect of Facebook and Instagram access on political beliefs, attitudes, and behavior by randomizing a subset of 19,857 Facebook users and 15,585 Instagram users to deactivate their accounts for 6 wk before the 2020 U.S. election. We report four key findings. First, both Facebook and Instagram deactivation reduced an index of political participation (driven mainly by reduced participation online). Second, Facebook deactivation had no significant effect on an index of knowledge, but secondary analyses suggest that it reduced knowledge of general news while possibly also decreasing belief in misinformation circulating online. Third, Facebook deactivation may have reduced self-reported net votes for Trump, though this effect does not meet our preregistered significance threshold. Finally, the effects of both Facebook and Instagram deactivation on affective and issue polarization, perceived legitimacy of the election, candidate favorability, and voter turnout were all precisely estimated and close to zero.