Talk by Matteo Cinelli, Sapienza Università di Roma

Date: 21.03.24  Time: 12.15   Room: Y27H12

Abstract:

Do echo chambers exist on social media? By focusing on how users relate to distinct narratives I will provide quantitative evidence that they do. The explanation involves users' tendency to promote their favored stories and hence to form polarized groups. Confirmation bias helps to account for users' decisions about whether to spread content, thus creating informational cascades within identifiable communities. At the same time, aggregation of favored information within those communities reinforces selective exposure and group polarization. Furthermore, the echo chamber effect display platform-specific peculiarities that can be quantitatively distinguished and modeled.