Social media algorithms can alter political views, browser extension study shows
13 days ago
- #AI
- #Social Media
- #Political Polarization
- AI-powered browser extension reduces political polarization by down-ranking hostile content on social media.
- Tool scans X (formerly Twitter) for anti-democratic and extremely negative partisan views, reordering posts to show divisive content lower in feeds.
- Tested on over 1,200 participants before the 2024 US presidential election, the extension improved attitudes toward opposing parties by an average of two points.
- Effects were bipartisan, impacting both liberal and conservative users similarly.
- Participants exposed to less hostile content reported feeling warmer toward opposing parties and less angry or sad while using the platform.
- The tool offers a way to rerank social media content without direct platform collaboration.
- Study limitations include accessibility only to browser users (not app users) and no long-term impact assessment.