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

IF 44.7 1区综合性期刊 Q1 MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES

Science Pub Date : 2023-07-28 Epub Date: 2023-07-27 DOI:10.1126/science.abp9364

Andrew M Guess, Neil Malhotra, Jennifer Pan, Pablo Barberá, Hunt Allcott, Taylor Brown, Adriana Crespo-Tenorio, Drew Dimmery, Deen Freelon, Matthew Gentzkow, Sandra González-Bailón, Edward Kennedy, Young Mie Kim, David Lazer, Devra Moehler, Brendan Nyhan, Carlos Velasco Rivera, Jaime Settle, Daniel Robert Thomas, Emily Thorson, Rebekah Tromble, Arjun Wilkins, Magdalena Wojcieszak, Beixian Xiong, Chad Kiewiet de Jonge, Annie Franco, Winter Mason, Natalie Jomini Stroud, Joshua A Tucker

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引用次数: 23

Abstract

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.

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社交媒体馈送算法如何影响竞选活动中的态度和行为？

我们调查了2020年美国大选期间脸书和Instagram的订阅源算法的影响。我们分配了一个同意用户的样本来反转按时间顺序排列的提要，而不是默认的算法。将用户从算法提要中移出大大减少了他们在平台上花费的时间和活动。按时间顺序排列的订阅源也影响了内容的曝光率：他们在两个平台上看到的政治和不可信的内容数量都有所增加，在脸书上看到的被归类为不文明或包含侮辱性词语的内容数量减少，来自温和朋友和他们在脸书中看到的受众意识形态混合的来源的内容数量增加。尽管用户在平台上的体验发生了这些重大变化，但在3个月的研究期间，按时间顺序排列的提要并没有显著改变问题两极分化、情感两极分化、政治知识或其他关键态度的水平。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Science 综合性期刊-综合性期刊

CiteScore

61.10

自引率

0.90%

发文量

审稿时长

2.1 months

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