… Scholars were once optimistic that social media could increase bipartisan dialogue by allowing virtually anyone to engage in public debate about politics. Yet mounting evidence suggests that Facebook and Twitter have allowed Republicans and Democrats to further segregate themselves. A recent study indicates that 85 percent of retweets are made by people who share a political orientation.
The link between social media and political polarization, however, presents a classic chicken-or-egg question: Do the accounts we follow on platforms such as Twitter shape our political views, or do we mostly follow accounts that reflect our views? We cannot know whether social media is a cause or a symptom of our deeply divided politics, unless, of course, we conduct a controlled experiment.
In a study that was published last month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, my colleagues and I did just that. CONT.
Christopher A. Bail (Duke), New York Times