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Cited by 184Misinformation and Its ImpactsSocial Media and PoliticsMedia Influence and Politics

Reshares on social media amplify political news but do not detectably affect beliefs or opinions

Open access
Guess, Andrew M., Malhotra, Neil, Pan, Jennifer, Barberá, Pablo, Allcott, Hunt, Brown, Taylor, Crespo-Tenorio, Adriana, Dimmery, Drew +21 more·2023·Science
DOI 10.1126/science.add8424
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Abstract

We studied the effects of exposure to reshared content on Facebook during the 2020 US election by assigning a random set of consenting, US-based users to feeds that did not contain any reshares over a 3-month period. We find that removing reshared content substantially decreases the amount of political news, including content from untrustworthy sources, to which users are exposed; decreases overall clicks and reactions; and reduces partisan news clicks. Further, we observe that removing reshared content produces clear decreases in news knowledge within the sample, although there is some uncertainty about how this would generalize to all users. Contrary to expectations, the treatment does not significantly affect political polarization or any measure of individual-level political attitudes.

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  • Other research has failed to find long-term changes in user beliefs due to social media ranking algorithms.

    “On the other hand, other research has failed to find long-term changes in user beliefs due to social media ranking algorithms [26,27,29,38]”

    From Twitter's Algorithm: Amplifying Anger, Animosity, and Affective Polarization (2023) · cites this paper as [26]

    The results section reports no statistically distinguishable effects on several political beliefs and attitudes when reshared content was removed from Facebook feeds. But the intervention removed reshares rather than changing a ranking algorithm, and it ran for three months during the 2020 election; the paper does not establish that beliefs remained unchanged in the long term. (LLM, conf=0.87)

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Research works printed but not linked: 11

  1. E. Bakshy, I. Rosenn, C. Marlow, L. Adamic, in Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on World Wide Web (2012), pp. 519-528.
  2. J. Cheng, L. Adamic, P. A. Dow, J. M. Kleinberg, J. Leskovec, in Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on World Wide Web (2014), pp. 925-936.
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  9. A. Acerbi, S. Altay, H. Mercier, Research note: Fighting misinformation or fighting for information? Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Misinformation Review (2022); https://doi.org/ 10.37016/mr-2020-87. · DOI · Paper page
  10. A. Guess, K. Aslett, J. Tucker, R. Bonneau, J. Nagler, J. Quant. Descr. Digit. Media 10.51685/jqd.2021.006 (2021). · DOI
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Authors
Guess, A. M., Malhotra, N., Pan, J., Barberá, P., Allcott, H., Brown, T., Crespo-Tenorio, A., Dimmery, D., Freelon, D., Gentzkow, M., González-Bailón, S., Kennedy, E., Kim, Y. M., Lazer, D., Moehler, D., Nyhan, B., Rivera, C. V., Settle, J., Thomas, D. R., Thorson, E., Tromble, R., Wilkins, A., Wojcieszak, M., Xiong, B., de Jonge, C. K., Franco, A., Mason, W., Stroud, N. J., & Tucker, J. A.
Affiliations
  • Princeton University (US)
  • Stanford University (US)
  • Meta (United States) (US)
  • University of Vienna (AT)
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
  • Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • Carnegie Mellon University (US)
  • University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
  • Northeastern University (US)
  • Dartmouth College (US)
  • William & Mary (US)
  • Syracuse University (US)
  • George Washington University (US)
  • University of California, Davis (US)
  • Meta, Menlo Park, CA, USA, CA, USA.
  • Center for Media Engagement (US)
  • New York University (US)
Corresponding author
Guess, Andrew M.
ORCID
Venue
Science
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Published
2023-07-28
Volume
381
Issue
6656
Pages
404-408
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
DOI
10.1126/science.add8424
OpenAlex
W4385298633
Cited by
184
References
13
Citations by year
2026: 62 · 2025: 52 · 2024: 53 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2
FWCI
76.92
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (publishedVersion)
  • Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (submittedVersion)
  • UNC Libraries
Funders
  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
  • Google
  • Nutrition Obesity Research Center, University of North Carolina
  • National Opinion Research Center
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
Keywords
Facebook, 2020 US presidential election, political polarization, political attitudes
MeSH terms
Attitude, Humans, Politics, Knowledge, Uncertainty, Social Media

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