Fig. 3: Effects of reducing Facebook Feed exposure to like-minded sources.
From: Like-minded sources on Facebook are prevalent but not polarizing
Average treatment effects of reducing exposure to like-minded sources in the Facebook Feed from 24 September to 23 December 2020. a–c, Sample average treatment effects (SATE) on Feed exposure and engagement. b, Total engagement (for content, the total number of engagement actions). c, Engagement rate (the probability of engaging conditional on exposure). d, Outcomes of surveys on attitudes, with population average treatment effects (PATEs) estimated using survey weights. Supplementary Information 1.4 provides full descriptions of all outcome variables. Non-bolded outcomes that appear below a bolded header are part of that category. For example, in d, ‘issue positions’, ‘group evaluations’ and ‘vote choice and candidate evaluations’ appear below ‘ideologically consistent views’, indicating that all are measured such that higher values indicate greater ideological consistency. Survey outcome measures are standardized scales averaged across surveys conducted between 4 November and 18 November 2020 and/or 9 December and 23 December 2020. Point estimates are provided in Extended Data Table 3. Sample average treatment effect estimates on attitudes are provided in Extended Data Fig. 4. All effects estimated using ordinary least squares (OLS) with robust standard errors and follow the preregistered analysis plan. Points marked with asterisks indicate findings that are significant (P < 0.05 after adjustment); points marked with open circles indicate P > 0.05 (all tests are two-sided). P values are false-discovery rate (FDR)-adjusted (Supplementary Information, section 1.5.4).
