There is considerable debate over whether and how social media contributes to polarization. Research suggests that a small number of hyperpartisan “influencers,” or highly followed accounts, produce the vast majority of misinformation and toxic content. Yet, little is known about the long-term causal effects of exposure to these influencers. In a correlational study (n1 = 1,447) and two digital field experiments (n2 = 494, n3 = 1,133), we examined whether (un)following hyperpartisan social media influencers contributes to polarization and misinformation sharing. We found that incentivizing Twitter/X users to unfollow hyperpartisan social media influencers improved their recent feelings toward the out-party by 23.5% compared to the control group, with effects persisting for at least six months. Unfollowing also led participants to engage with more accurate news accounts, increased satisfaction with their Twitter/X feeds, and reduced the amount of political content they reported seeing a full year later—without reducing engagement. By contrast, incentivizing users to follow accounts that tweeted about science improved well-being. Additionally, we found that, after Elon’s Musk purchased Twitter/X and made several platform changes, participants used Twitter/X less frequently, viewed their feeds as less reliable, and posted lower quality news. Our results demonstrate the long-term, causal impact of repeated exposure to hyper-partisan influencers on attitudes and behavior. They also illustrate that the behavior and experience of Twitter/X users changed substantially after Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform, revealing the potential impact of social media design changes. Our work has implications for interventions that can be made by platforms or by individuals seeking to curate their social media experience. Unlike other social media reduction interventions, unfollowing is a targeted approach: like a scalpel, it surgically removes a few harmful parts of one’s feed, allowing the beneficial aspects to remain.
Rathje et al. (Sat,) studied this question.