Why social media algorithms send you posts you don't like
Do your social media accounts feed you content that reflects your core beliefs and guiding principles? Our new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that the algorithms supplying your feeds may be prioritizing content that clashes with your values. That's because the algorithms heavily weigh online posts that you reply to, and social media users tend to…
Your social media feed may not always reflect your own values, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study found that algorithms on X, a social media platform, tend to prioritize content that clashes with users' values rather than content that aligns with them. This is because the algorithms heavily prioritize posts that users reply to, and social media users are more likely to comment on content they take issue with rather than content they agree with.
On X, the algorithm promoted content that conflicted with users' values, particularly for Democrat users, more so than for content that aligned with their values. The researchers suggest that social media platforms could potentially align feeds with users' values by asking users to identify their values and sorting feeds accordingly. This could help reduce polarization and support user autonomy.
Written by urgent.news from Phys.org's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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- Why social media algorithms send you posts you don’t like theconversation.com
