Like-minded sources on Facebook are prevalent but not polarizing

Brendan Nyhan (), Jaime Settle, Emily Thorson, Magdalena Wojcieszak, Pablo Barberá, Annie Y. Chen, Hunt Allcott, Taylor Brown, Adriana Crespo-Tenorio, Drew Dimmery, Deen Freelon, Matthew Gentzkow, Sandra González-Bailón, Andrew M. Guess, Edward Kennedy, Young Mie Kim, David Lazer, Neil Malhotra, Devra Moehler, Jennifer Pan, Daniel Robert Thomas, Rebekah Tromble, Carlos Velasco Rivera, Arjun Wilkins, Beixian Xiong, Chad Kiewiet Jonge, Annie Franco, Winter Mason, Natalie Jomini Stroud and Joshua A. Tucker
Additional contact information
Brendan Nyhan: Dartmouth College
Jaime Settle: William and Mary
Emily Thorson: Syracuse University
Magdalena Wojcieszak: University of California
Pablo Barberá: Meta
Annie Y. Chen: CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance
Hunt Allcott: Stanford University
Taylor Brown: Meta
Adriana Crespo-Tenorio: Meta
Drew Dimmery: Meta
Deen Freelon: University of Pennsylvania
Matthew Gentzkow: Stanford University
Sandra González-Bailón: University of Pennsylvania
Andrew M. Guess: Princeton University
Edward Kennedy: Carnegie Mellon University
Young Mie Kim: University of Wisconsin-Madison
David Lazer: Northeastern University
Neil Malhotra: Stanford University
Devra Moehler: Meta
Jennifer Pan: Stanford University
Daniel Robert Thomas: Meta
Rebekah Tromble: The George Washington University
Carlos Velasco Rivera: Meta
Arjun Wilkins: Meta
Beixian Xiong: Meta
Chad Kiewiet Jonge: Meta
Annie Franco: Meta
Winter Mason: Meta
Natalie Jomini Stroud: University of Texas at Austin
Joshua A. Tucker: New York University

Nature, 2023, vol. 620, issue 7972, 137-144

Abstract: Abstract Many critics raise concerns about the prevalence of ‘echo chambers’ on social media and their potential role in increasing political polarization. However, the lack of available data and the challenges of conducting large-scale field experiments have made it difficult to assess the scope of the problem1,2. Here we present data from 2020 for the entire population of active adult Facebook users in the USA showing that content from ‘like-minded’ sources constitutes the majority of what people see on the platform, although political information and news represent only a small fraction of these exposures. To evaluate a potential response to concerns about the effects of echo chambers, we conducted a multi-wave field experiment on Facebook among 23,377 users for whom we reduced exposure to content from like-minded sources during the 2020 US presidential election by about one-third. We found that the intervention increased their exposure to content from cross-cutting sources and decreased exposure to uncivil language, but had no measurable effects on eight preregistered attitudinal measures such as affective polarization, ideological extremity, candidate evaluations and belief in false claims. These precisely estimated results suggest that although exposure to content from like-minded sources on social media is common, reducing its prevalence during the 2020 US presidential election did not correspondingly reduce polarization in beliefs or attitudes.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06297-w

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