The triple-filter bubble: Using agent-based modelling to test a meta-theoretical framework for the emergence of filter bubbles and echo chambers
Authored by Daniel Geschke, Jan Lorenz, Peter Holtz
Date Published: 2019
DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12286
Sponsors:
German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG)
Platforms:
NetLogo
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Model Code URLs:
https://zenodo.org/record/1407733#.Xiy0pFNKi3I
Abstract
Filter bubbles and echo chambers have both been linked recently by
commentators to rapid societal changes such as Brexit and the
polarization of the US American society in the course of Donald Trump's
election campaign. We hypothesize that information filtering processes
take place on the individual, the social, and the technological levels
(triple-filter-bubble framework). We constructed an agent-based
modelling (ABM) and analysed twelve different information filtering
scenarios to answer the question under which circumstances social media
and recommender algorithms contribute to fragmentation of modern society
into distinct echo chambers. Simulations show that, even without any
social or technological filters, echo chambers emerge as a consequence
of cognitive mechanisms, such as confirmation bias, under conditions of
central information propagation through channels reaching a large part
of the population. When social and technological filtering mechanisms
are added to the model, polarization of society into even more distinct
and less interconnected echo chambers is observed. Merits and limits of
the theoretical framework, and more generally of studying complex social
phenomena using ABM, are discussed. Directions for future research such
as ways of comparing our simulations with actual empirical data and
possible measures against societal fragmentation on the three different
levels are suggested.
Tags
Agent-based modelling
Social media
Recommender systems
Self
Bias
Selective exposure
Attitude polarization
News
Echo chamber effect
Filter bubble