Almost four billion people around the world now use social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and social media is one of the primary ways p

Out-group animosity drives engagement on social media

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2021-06-25 00:00:07

Almost four billion people around the world now use social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and social media is one of the primary ways people access news or receive communications from politicians. However, social media may be creating perverse incentives for divisive content because this content is particularly likely to go “viral.” We report evidence that posts about political opponents are substantially more likely to be shared on social media and that this out-group effect is much stronger than other established predictors of social media sharing, such as emotional language. These findings contribute to scholarly debates about the role of social media in political polarization and can inform solutions for creating healthier social media environments. Anonymized partial social media data and analysis code are available on OSF ([https://osf.io/py9u4][1]/). Some data could not be included (e.g., the raw social media text and usernames) due to privacy concerns. [1]: https://osf.io/py9u4/