Users choose to engage with more partisan news than they are exposed to on Google Search
Ronald E. Robertson (),
Jon Green,
Damian J. Ruck,
Katherine Ognyanova,
Christo Wilson and
David Lazer
Additional contact information
Ronald E. Robertson: Stanford University, Stanford Internet Observatory
Jon Green: Northeastern University, Network Science Institute
Damian J. Ruck: Northeastern University, Network Science Institute
Katherine Ognyanova: Rutgers University, School of Communication & Information
Christo Wilson: Northeastern University, Network Science Institute
David Lazer: Northeastern University, Network Science Institute
Nature, 2023, vol. 618, issue 7964, 342-348
Abstract:
Abstract If popular online platforms systematically expose their users to partisan and unreliable news, they could potentially contribute to societal issues such as rising political polarization1,2. This concern is central to the ‘echo chamber’3–5 and ‘filter bubble’6,7 debates, which critique the roles that user choice and algorithmic curation play in guiding users to different online information sources8–10. These roles can be measured as exposure, defined as the URLs shown to users by online platforms, and engagement, defined as the URLs selected by users. However, owing to the challenges of obtaining ecologically valid exposure data—what real users were shown during their typical platform use—research in this vein typically relies on engagement data4,8,11–16 or estimates of hypothetical exposure17–23. Studies involving ecological exposure have therefore been rare, and largely limited to social media platforms7,24, leaving open questions about web search engines. To address these gaps, we conducted a two-wave study pairing surveys with ecologically valid measures of both exposure and engagement on Google Search during the 2018 and 2020 US elections. In both waves, we found more identity-congruent and unreliable news sources in participants’ engagement choices, both within Google Search and overall, than they were exposed to in their Google Search results. These results indicate that exposure to and engagement with partisan or unreliable news on Google Search are driven not primarily by algorithmic curation but by users’ own choices.
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06078-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:618:y:2023:i:7964:d:10.1038_s41586-023-06078-5
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06078-5
Access Statistics for this article
Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper
More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().