Testing the effects of Facebook usage in an ethnically polarized setting.
Testing the effects of Facebook usage in an ethnically polarized setting.
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.2022819118
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发表时间：
2021-06-22
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Tucker JA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Asimovic N;Nagler J;Bonneau R;Tucker JA
人们越来越相信社交媒体加剧了两极分化，但人们对社交媒体对外族态度的因果影响知之甚少。通过在波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那进行的一项实验，用户在身份显着性增强的 1 周内避免使用 Facebook，我们发现，与预期相反，停用帐户的人报告的外群体尊重度低于仍然活跃的群体，但这种影响可能取决于受访者居住地的种族异质性水平。此外，我们复制了一项针对美国用户的研究结果：停用导致新闻知识减少，并暗示主观幸福感改善。我们的研究结果给人们关于社交媒体对社会动态影响的普遍看法带来了细微差别，这些看法通常是二分法和简单化的。尽管人们相信社交媒体正在改变族群间的动态——使人们彼此更加亲近或进一步疏远——但社交媒体对种族间态度的影响尚未得到严格评估，特别是在种族间关系脆弱的地区。我们报告了波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那 (BiH) 的一项随机对照试验的结果，该试验探讨了 2019 年 7 月种族灭绝纪念活动前后 1 周内接触社交媒体对 Facebook 用户的一系列种族间态度的影响。我们发现的证据表明，与预先登记的预期相反，停用 Facebook 个人资料的人比那些仍然活跃的人更不重视少数族裔外群体。此外，我们提供了额外的证据表明，这种影响可能取决于受访者居住地的种族异质性水平。我们还将分析扩展到包括主观幸福感和新闻知识的测量。在这里，我们发现 Facebook 停用会导致主观幸福感的改善和对时事知识的减少，在一个非常不同的背景下复制了美国最近的研究结果，从而增强了我们对这些影响的普遍性的信心。
Amid growing belief that social media exacerbates polarization, little is known about the causal effects of social media on ethnic outgroup attitudes. Through an experiment in Bosnia and Herzegovina where users refrained from Facebook usage during 1 wk of heightened identity salience, we find that—counter expectations—people who deactivated their accounts reported lower outgroup regard than the group that remained active, but this effect was likely conditional on the level of ethnic heterogeneity of respondents’ residence. Additionally, we replicate findings from a study on US users: Deactivation led to a decrease in news knowledge and suggestive improvements in subjective wellbeing. Our findings bring nuance to popular beliefs, frequently dichotomous and simplistic, of social media’s impact on societal dynamics. Despite the belief that social media is altering intergroup dynamics—bringing people closer or further alienating them from one another—the impact of social media on interethnic attitudes has yet to be rigorously evaluated, especially within areas with tenuous interethnic relations. We report results from a randomized controlled trial in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), exploring the effects of exposure to social media during 1 wk around genocide remembrance in July 2019 on a set of interethnic attitudes of Facebook users. We find evidence that, counter to preregistered expectations, people who deactivated their Facebook profiles report lower regard for ethnic outgroups than those who remained active. Moreover, we present additional evidence suggesting that this effect is likely conditional on the level of ethnic heterogeneity of respondents’ residence. We also extend the analysis to include measures of subjective well-being and knowledge of news. Here, we find that Facebook deactivation leads to suggestive improvements in subjective wellbeing and a decrease in knowledge of current events, replicating results from recent research in the United States in a very different context, thus increasing our confidence in the generalizability of these effects.
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影响因子：
7.2
作者：
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通讯作者：
Hampton, Keith N.
影响因子：
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作者：
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