The political effects of X's feed algorithm
Abstract
Key Highlights
US adults who report social media as their primary news source
One half say they at least sometimes get news from these platforms
X users initially on the algorithmic feed
The algorithmic feed ('For you') is the default on X; 24% were using the chronological feed
More likely to prioritize Republican policy issues (inflation, immigration, crime)
Among participants initially on the chronological feed switched to the algorithmic feed.
More likely to believe that the investigations into Trump are unacceptable
Among participants initially on the chronological feed switched to the algorithmic feed.
Less likely to hold a positive view of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Among participants initially on the chronological feed switched to the algorithmic feed.
More likely to follow any conservative account on X
95% CI: 0.5, 7.0; P = 0.025. Among participants initially on the chronological feed switched to the algorithmic feed.
Conservative posts more likely to appear in the algorithmic feed
19.9% relative increase;
Share of conservative content among political content for Democrats — algorithmic vs chronological feed
The algorithm amplifies conservative content even in the feeds of Democratic users.
Posts from news organizations less frequent in the algorithmic feed
58.1% relative decrease;
Posts from political activists more frequent in the algorithmic feed
27.4% relative increase;
More likely to follow conservative political activist accounts
Effect size expressed in standard deviations (s.d.), a measure of the magnitude of the effect relative to the variability across participants. The entire effect on political activist accounts was driven by conservative political activists.
More posts from conservative accounts in the chronological feed after algorithmic exposure
60% relative increase; The effect persists in the chronological feeds of users who were exposed to the algorithmic feed.
Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects.
Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine.
We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects.
These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.
A quarter of US adults report social media as their primary news source, and one half say they at least sometimes get news from these platforms.
Yet, the fact that switching off a feed algorithm does not affect users' political attitudes does not mean that algorithms have no political impact. If the initial exposure to the algorithm has a persistent effect on political outcomes, switching off the algorithm might show no effects despite its importance.
The algorithm demotes accounts of traditional news media and promotes those of political activists. Posts from news organizations appear 15.5 percentage points (58.1%) less often in the algorithmic feed, whereas posts from political activists appear 5.9 percentage points more often (27.4%).
In addition to promoting entertainment, X's feed algorithm tends to push more conservative content to users' feeds. Seven weeks of exposure to such content in 2023 shifted users' political opinions in a more conservative direction, particularly with regard to policy priorities, perceptions of the criminal investigations into Trump and views on the war in Ukraine.
The effect is asymmetric: switching the algorithm on influenced political views, but switching it off did not reverse users' perspectives on policy priorities or current political issues.
We show that exposure to algorithmically curated content led users to follow conservative activist accounts. In contrast, when the algorithmic feed was switched off, users continued to follow the accounts they had engaged with previously. This indicates that exposure to feed algorithms has a lasting impact on users' feeds and their political attitudes.
Overall, we conclude that social media feed algorithms can play an important role in shaping political opinions and online behaviour.
Sources
Suggest changes on GitHub