Abstract
How do echo chambers operate? Why does social propagation of information become trapped within the boundaries of social groups? Previous studies of these questions have identified informational and structural factors which hinder information exchange across group boundaries; these factors constitute “chambers” in which information flows are confined and transformed into “echoes.” However, empirical evidence has indicated that these factors may not sufficiently explain the mechanism of echo chambers. Hence, the present study investigated whether the insular flow of information emerges and endures without the chambers. A randomized controlled experiment was conducted in which participants, who were classified into two political groups, exchanged randomly selected articles with the same number of ingroup and outgroup neighbors. The experiment manipulated the directionality of incoming information flow by varying the number of articles sent from ingroup neighbors across two conditions. Analyses revealed that the ingroup-slanted inflow induced ingroup-slanted outflow, suppressing transmission toward neighbors in a different social group. The biased inflow also promoted positive reactions to information exchanges and reduced negative evaluations on the exchanged information. Furthermore, the ingroup-slanted inflow increased false perceptions of ingroup majority, which is known to encourage information dissemination by a social group. The present study suggests two self-reinforcing mechanisms of ingroup-biased flows that generate echoes even without the chambers. These mechanisms may enable a small group of strategic actors to exacerbate polarization within a large population by manipulating directions of information flow.
Highlights
Information spreads through pathways of social networks and reaches a large population within a short period of time [1,2,3]
The results demonstrated that participants were able to distinguish each article based on their social identity and the message content, and a social group’s evaluation of an article was associated with the likelihood that the social group transmits the article to ingroup neighbors
A separate experiment with 84 participants replicated the main findings of the current experiment. This independent experiment confirmed that ingroup-slanted inflow significantly. These findings reveal that ingroup-slanted inflow of information biases the direction of transmission, the social reaction to information exchange, the evaluation of information, and the perception of social networks
Summary
Information spreads through pathways of social networks and reaches a large population within a short period of time [1,2,3]. The Internet and social media have reduced temporal and spatial constraints on communication, further facilitating information dissemination on social networks. Social propagation of information is still often constrained by people’s social identities, such as race, gender, and political affiliation. The spread of information tends to be bounded within a social group, leading to “echo chambers” that could cause social segregation and political polarization [4,5,6,7].
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