• search hit 3 of 3
Back to Result List

The effects of Facebook and Instagram on the 2020 election: A deactivation experiment

  • We study the effect of Facebook and Instagram access on political beliefs, attitudes, and behavior by randomizing a subset of 19,857 Facebook users and 15,585 Instagram users to deactivate their accounts for 6 wk before the 2020 U.S. election. We report four key findings. First, both Facebook and Instagram deactivation reduced an index of political participation (driven mainly by reduced participation online). Second, Facebook deactivation had no significant effect on an index of knowledge, but secondary analyses suggest that it reduced knowledge of general news while possibly also decreasing belief in misinformation circulating online. Third, Facebook deactivation may have reduced self-reported net votes for Trump, though this effect does not meet our preregistered significance threshold. Finally, the effects of both Facebook and Instagram deactivation on affective and issue polarization, perceived legitimacy of the election, candidate favorability, and voter turnout were all precisely estimated and close to zero.

Export metadata

Additional Services

Share in Twitter Search Google Scholar
Metadaten
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Author(s):Hunt Allcott, Matthew GentzkowORCiD, Winter Mason, Arjun Wilkins, Pablo Barberá, Taylor Brown, Juan Carlos Cisneros, Adriana Crespo-Tenorio, Drew DimmeryORCiD, Deen Freelon, Sandra González-BailónORCiD, Andrew M. GuessORCiD, Young Mie KimORCiD, David Lazer, Neil MalhotraORCiD, Devra Moehler, Sameer Nair-Desai, Houda Nait El Barj, Brendan NyhanORCiD, Ana Carolina Paixao de Queiroz, Jennifer PanORCiD, Jaime Settle, Emily Thorson, Rebekah TrombleORCiD, Carlos Velasco Rivera, Benjamin Wittenbrink, Magdalena WojcieszakORCiD, Saam Zahedian, Annie Franco, Chad Kiewiet de Jonge, Natalie Jomini Stroud, Joshua A. TuckerORCiD
Parent Title (English):Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publication year:2024
Publishing Institution:Hertie School
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2321584121
Release Date:2024/05/30
Volume:121
Issue:21
Article Number:e2321584121
Hertie School Research:Data Science Lab
AY 23/24:AY 23/24
Licence of document (German):Metadaten / metadata
Verstanden ✔
Diese Webseite verwendet technisch erforderliche Session-Cookies. Durch die weitere Nutzung der Webseite stimmen Sie diesem zu. Unsere Datenschutzerklärung finden Sie hier.