Opinion dynamics via search engines (and other algorithmic gatekeepers)
Open accessIntegrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Algorithmic gatekeeping operates through technical mechanisms such as indexation, ranking, and personalization, as well as traffic capture features such as knowledge panels, featured snippets, and increasingly AI-generated overviews, which diminish incoming web traffic to content sources.
“This form of algorithmic gatekeeping (Germano and Sobbrio, 2020) operates through technical mechanisms such as indexation, ranking, and personalization, as well as traffic capture features such as knowledge panels, featured snippets, and increasingly AI-generated overviews, which diminish incoming web traffic to content sources (Chapekis and Lieb, 2025).”
From Google Arts & Culture and the platformization of cultural heritage: Convergence, gamification, and shifting positions of institutional partners (2026) · cites this paper as Germano and Sobbrio, 2020
Cites
Filter Bubbles, Echo Chambers, and Online News Consumption
Flaxman, S., Goel, S., & Rao, J. M. (2016) · Public Opinion Quarterly · doi:10.1093/poq/nfw006 · Cited by 1,992 · see citing works
Kata, A. (2012) · Vaccine · doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2011.11.112 · Cited by 1,094 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Importantly, empirical evidence shows that websites reporting misinformation may acquire a large relevance in terms of online traffic and in turn may affect individuals’ opinions and behavior (Carvalho et al., 2011; Kata, 2012; Mocanu et al., 2015; Shao et al., 2016).”
BackgroundIn Google We Trust: Users’ Decisions on Rank, Position, and Relevance
Pan, B., Hembrooke, H., Joachims, T., Lorigo, L., Gay, G., & Granka, L. (2007) · Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication · doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00351.x · Cited by 715 · see citing works
Opinion Dynamics and Learning in Social Networks
Acemoglu, D., & Ozdaglar, A. (2011) · Dynamic Games and Applications · doi:10.1007/s13235-010-0004-1 · Cited by 705 · see citing works
First I "like" it, then I hide it: Folk Theories of Social Feeds
Eslami, M., Karahalios, K., Sandvig, C., Vaccaro, K., Rickman, A., Hamilton, K., & Kirlik, A. (2016) · Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/2858036.2858494 · Cited by 375 · see citing works
Search Engine Bias and the Demise of Search Engine Utopianism
Goldman, E. (2008) · Information Science and Knowledge Management · doi:10.1007/978-3-540-75829-7_8 · Cited by 166 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Ranking for engagement: How social media algorithms fuel misinformation and polarization
Germano, F., Gómez, V., & Sobbrio, F. (2026) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2026.105589 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Self-citationCao, T. L. (2026) · Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies · doi:10.1177/13548565261431167
- Authors
- Germano, F., & Sobbrio, F.
- Affiliations
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES)
- Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Germano, Fabrizio
- Venue
- Journal of Public Economics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-07
- Volume
- 187
- Pages
- 104188
- ISSN
- 0047-2727 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2595783037
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 1.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Public Economics (publishedVersion)
- Repositori digital de la UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) (acceptedVersion)
- Cineca Institutional Research Information System (Tor Vergata University) (submittedVersion)
- IRIS - Institutional Research Information System (Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Fundación BBVA
- Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Information Retrieval and Search Behavior
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Game Theory and Applications
- Keywords
- opinion dynamics, search engines, ranking algorithms, personalization, feedback effects, information aggregation, misinformation propagation, click behavior, algorithmic gatekeeping
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
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